Tag Archives: blog guest

“10 Moments That Changed My Life” by Author Pamela Thibodeaux

I am pleased to introduce today’s guest, Pamela Thibodeaux, who is sharing the moments that changed her life and a book bundle for sale…

 

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#1: Although it ended in divorce, the day I married my first husband definitely changed my life. I went from a high-school girl to a married woman and a short one-year-and-two-months-later, I fulfilled the lifelong dream of becoming a mother.

#2: Born three years, nine months, one day, two hours and fourteen minutes apart the birth of my two children will always be moments that changed my life! 

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#3: July 14, 1992 I married the love of my life in the back yard of our home.

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#4: December 2000 I received an email acceptance for my first novel! Although more were to come, and each is exciting in itself, there’s nothing like that initial contract.

#5: June 2002 I co-founded Bayou Writers’ Group in Lake Charles, Louisiana and for six years acted as President and Treasurer and overall ‘everything’ (with some help of course!) before handing the reins over in 2008.

#6: Everyone says there is nothing like having that first grandchild and I must admit that old adage is true. 2004 was a rough year. My dog died, my grandfather died, my daughter was experiencing a toxic pregnancy, I was hit by a drunk driver-totaling my car and throwing my life into a tailspin with “situation induced” depression. Without a doubt, the only bright spot in that entire year was the birth of my Angel Girl.

#7: April 4, 2006 ushered in the birth of our first grandson and we flew to WA to visit him when he was just a few weeks old.

#8: 2009 was another year of excruciating hardship intertwined with inexpressible joy. The love of my life passed away August 18th, but God brightened the months before with the birth of our 2nd grandson in May 27th. 

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#9: The 2010 “Saddle up and Write” retreat at the Silver Spur guest ranch in Bandera, TX changed my life because it opened the door to new friendships and a place where I can escape that brings me peace beyond measure and joy unspeakable.

#10: They say what doesn’t kill us makes us stronger. That I’m still alive after losing my mother, mother-in-law, honorary aunt, and cousin in the span of two weeks in 2014 is a testament to that fact and the grace of God in our toughest circumstances.

Thank you for sharing those sad and happy moments. And for including the lovely pictures. 

And now, please check out Pamela’s awesome book bundle…

Tempered Series Bundle 

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Now all 4 titles in the Tempered Series by Pamela S Thibodeaux are combined into a single book along with a bonus short story and a sneak peek into #5 in the series Tempered Truth (coming sometime in the near future)!

Contains: Tempered Hearts, Tempered Dreams, Tempered Fire, Tempered Joy, & Lori’s Redemption

Start at the beginning and follow these beloved characters throughout the years as love crosses the lines of age and strengthens the bonds of friendship. 

Title: Tempered Hearts (book 1 in Tempered series)

Blurb: Rancher Craig Harris and veterinarian Tamera Collins clash from the moment they meet.  Innocence is pitted against arrogance as tempers rise and passions ignite to form a love as pure as the finest gold, fresh from the crucible and as strong as steel.  Thrown together amid tragedy and unsated passion, Tamera and Craig share a strong attraction that neither accepts as the first stages of love.  Torn between desire and dislike, they must make peace with their pasts and God in order to open up to the love blossoming between them.  It is a love that nothing can destroy when they come to understand that only when hearts are tempered, minds are opened and wills are softened can man discern the will of God for his life.

 Title: Tempered Dreams (book 2 in Tempered series)

Blurb: Dr. Scott Hensley (introduced in Tempered Hearts) has built a wall around his heart since the death of his wife and parents.  Katrina Simmons is recovering from scars inflicted on her as a battered wife.  Can dreams be renewed and faith strengthened?  Can they find joy and peace in God’s love and in love for one another? 

Title: Tempered Fire (book 3 in Tempered series)

Blurb: Amber Harris is a good girl on the brink of womanhood. Stanley Morrison is a young man at the start of his life. For each other, they have always felt the fireworks that two people in love should feel. But the questions about his past, his pride, and Amber’s father might be the end of what could be a strong relationship. As the two try to protect their budding romance, some unlikely but powerful forces conspire to keep them apart. Will they survive the wishes of everyone around them with their relationship intact?

Title: Tempered Joy (book 4 in Tempered series)

Blurb: All around rodeo cowboy and heir to the Rockin’ H Ranch, Ace Harris is determined not to fall in love.  He’s only loved one woman in his life, his mother, and no one can even come close to filling her boots. Lexie Morgan thinks rodeo cowboys have rocks for brains and a death wish for a soul.  A broken childhood and the death of her father and best friend leave her doubting and questioning God (despite her years of religious upbringing) and afraid of love. Can two young people who clash from the onset learn to trust in the healing power of God and find love and happiness amidst tragedy and grief? 

 Title: Lori’s Redemption (short story spin-off of Tempered Fire)

Blurb: Lori Strickland (introduced in Tempered Fire) has always been known as her father’s “wild child” with no desire to change until she meets ex-bull-rider-turned-preacher Rafe Judson. Her attempts to change her wanton ways come to naught until she realizes redemption only comes with true repentance.

 Purchase Links for Tempered Series E-bundle

Nook: http://bit.ly/1Xv6l2Y

Kindle: http://amzn.to/1TlaExp

Smashwords: http://bit.ly/1SzkRoi

 Author bio: Award-winning author, Pamela S. Thibodeaux is the Co-Founder and a lifetime member of Bayou Writers Group in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Multi-published in romantic fiction as well as creative non-fiction, her writing has been tagged as, “Inspirational with an Edge!” ™ and reviewed as “steamier and grittier than the typical Christian novel without decreasing the message.”

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Links:

Website address: http://www.pamelathibodeaux.com

Blog: http://pamswildroseblog.blogspot.com

Face Book: http://facebook.com/pamelasthibodeaux

Twitter: http://twitter.com/psthib @psthib

Pinterest: http://www.pinterest.com/pamelasthibodea/

Amazon Author Page: http://amzn.to/1jUVcdU

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Filed under 10 Moments that Changed My Life, Author Blog Post

“10 Moments That Changed My Life” by Author Chrys Fey

I am pleased to introduce today’s guest, Chrys Fey, who is sharing the moments that changed her life and her new release…

 

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  1. Spine Surgery

When I was fifteen I had spine surgery to correct scoliosis. My spine was curved at a 48-degree angle and was twisted. I spent five days in the hospital after doctors used fusion and a titanium rod to fix the curvature. Before my surgery, I spent every day in pain. After it, I had a hard recovery and had to learn how to do daily activities with limited movement in my back. I remember how strange it felt to walk, and go up and down stairs. I didn’t think I’d ever heal, but I did. And what I went through made me a stronger person.

  1. The First Time I was Inspire to Write

One day, when I was twelve-years-old, I sat down on a small grassy hill next to my house after a game of basketball. I was playing with the sharp blades of grass when my fingers brushed something stuck deep in the roots—a crooked screw crusted in orange rust. For the strangest reason, a story came to me about an extraordinary girl in an alternate world. I grabbed an old notebook and wrote fiercely. I’ve written ever since.

  1. Fire

Also when I was twelve, a series of fires erupted in my city. I remember heading home from school and seeing the black plumes. My best friend’s dad said, “It looks like it’s right next to your house.” Sure enough, it was. I was dropped off to see flames consuming the brush and trees a mere foot from my home. My house survived, but one of my cats didn’t. Her name was Angel. She had run out the door…toward the fire. She returned late that night badly burned. She died a few days later on my thirteenth birthday. Fires still scare me today.

  1. Hurricane Francis

Hurricane Francis, a category 5 hurricane, hit Florida in 2004. Her worst happened at night while I was asleep. In the morning, I found my neighbor’s fence flat on the ground, the roof over my porch torn, and my garage door crumpled. I spent a week with my family without power and had to get MRE’s from FEMA in order to eat. This experience inspired my novella Hurricane Crimes.

  1. Bye-bye School

When I was seventeen, I left school. Not because I was pregnant or a delinquent or anything like that. I was just going through difficult family times and found myself unable to go for several reasons. That circumstance, however, really did change my life.

  1. GED

After I left school, I got my GED when I was twenty-one. I hated seeing my friends graduate high school and move onto college, but that just wasn’t in my cards. I am proud of what I did though. That GED hangs proudly on my wall.

  1. The Birth of my First Nephew

I fell in love (heart and soul) for the first time in my life when I met my nephew. I held him in the hospital, looked down at his precious face, and knew I was a goner. He is now ten-years-old!

  1. Signing with The Wild Rose Press

I was in a bad place emotionally when I sent TWRP my manuscript. I was sinking deeper into a depression, feeling like a failure, and desperately wishing for something to change. Then it did. I received a positive email from the Senior Editor of the Crimson Rose Line (romantic-suspense) and soon had a contract. Thanks to my editor, I have published a total of 5 projects with them.

  1. Hurricane Crimes

The day I published Hurricane Crimes, I finally felt like a winner. I was a published author! Then I received awesome messages from readers and reviewers that pushed me to think about the fate of this story. What happened before it? What happened after it? And that’s how the Disaster Crimes Series was born.

  1. The Great Kitty Rescue

At my old apartment complex, a stray cat gave birth to 4 babies. I tried to take care of the mommy and babies the best I could. I offered shelter on my screened-in porch and gave them food and water. One day, the mom disappeared. I don’t know where she went, but before she left she made sure that her babies knew I was good. Every evening they crept onto my porch for dinner.

Sometime later, a woman with obnoxious twin boys (who I had seen throwing rocks where the babies sheltered at night, knowing they were there) was trying to grab them out from under the shed. She was unsuccessful, and I took action. That night when the babies came for their dinner, I did something drastic…I put the plate inside my house and waited for them to enter. When they did, I quietly slide the glass door shut. One of them freaked when he saw the door closed, but after a few minutes they were completely fine. It took them a few weeks to get used to seeing me so close, but they soon warmed up to me. October of this year will make it three years since they’ve been members of my family—Cole, Clover, Milo and Otis.

Wow, Chris, those are some fascinating, life-changing events, I’ll have to say. I loved hearing about your journey and how writing and publishing helped to pull you out of depression. The Wild Rose Press is a fabulous publisher…so glad you found a home there. Thank you so much for sharing with us.

And now, please check out Chris’s new release, looks like an excellent read!!! She’s also sponsoring a giveaway…the Rafflecopter link is at the bottom of the post.

 

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BLURB:

An Internal Affairs Investigator was murdered and his brother, Donovan Goldwyn, was framed. Now Donovan is desperate to prove his innocence. And the one person who can do that is the woman who saved him from a deadly hurricane—Beth Kennedy. From the moment their fates intertwined, passion consumed him. He wants her in his arms. More, he wants her by his side in his darkest moments.

Beth Kennedy may not know everything about Donovan, but she can’t deny what she feels for him. It’s her love for him that pushes her to do whatever she has to do to help him get justice, including putting herself in a criminal’s crosshairs.

When a tip reveals the killer’s location, they travel to California, but then an earthquake of catastrophic proportions separates them. As aftershocks roll the land, Beth and Donovan have to endure dangerous conditions while trying to find their way back to one another. Will they reunite and find the killer, or will they lose everything?

 

Digital:

Amazon US: http://amzn.com/B01CRJSPIU

Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B01CRJSPIU

Amazon CA: http://www.amazon.ca/dp/B01CRJSPIU

Barnes & Noble: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/seismic-crimes-chrys-fey/1123508790?ean=2940158028380

KOBO: https://store.kobobooks.com/en-us/ebook/seismic-crimes

All Romance eBooks: https://www.allromanceebooks.com/product-seismiccrimes-1999825-153.html

The Wild Rose Press:

http://www.wildrosepublishing.com/maincatalog_v151/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=195&products_id=6740

 

Print:

Amazon US: http://amzn.com/1509207252

Amazon UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1509207252

Amazon CA: http://www.amazon.ca/dp/1509207252

The Wild Rose Press:

http://www.wildrosepublishing.com/maincatalog_v151/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=191&products_id=6793

 

 

ChrysFey

BIO:

Chrys Fey is the author of Hurricane Crimes, Book One in the Disaster Crimes series, as well as these releases from The Wild Rose Press: 30 Seconds, Ghost of Death, and Witch of Death. She is an administrator for the Insecure Writer’s Support Group and has participated in the Blogging from April A to Z Challenge.

When Fey was six years old, she realized she wanted to be a writer by watching her mother pursue publication. At the age of twelve, she started writing her first novel, which flourished into a series she later rewrote at seventeen.

Fey lives in Florida and is always on the lookout for hurricanes. She has four adopted cats who keep her entertained with their antics, and three nephews who keep her entertained with their antics. You can connect with her on Facebook, Twitter, and through her blog, Write with Fey. She loves to get to know her readers!

AUTHOR LINKS:

Website www.ChrysFey.com

Blog www.writewithfey.blogspot.com

Facebook www.facebook.com/chrysfey

Twitter https://twitter.com/ChrysFey

HURRICANE CRIMES 99¢ SALE!

 

  

DIGITAL LINKS:

Amazon CA / NOOK / KOBO 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Filed under 10 Moments that Changed My Life, Author Blog Post, New Release

“10 Moments That Changed My Life” by Tracee Lydia Garner – PLUS: Anchored Hearts (Inspirational Romantic Suspense)

I am pleased to introduce today’s guest, Tracee Lydia Garner with her MUST READ  list of moments that changed her life…

 

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I’m so excited to share a few tidbits about me here at Author Alicia Dean’s blog today. Thank you so much for having me and for this opportunity. As I was writing this I was thinking wow this all seems so serious. It’s really not. It’s just life if you think about it, an inspired life, I hope, but just tidbits of a life just the same, and I hope you find it kind of interesting. 

For the theme, I selected 10 moments that had a big impact on my life all the way from being born to present day so number. Here I go, in chronological order as they appeared in my life (I hope): Enjoy. 

1-Being born to GREAT, Faithful Parents  – I know, I know, I have absolutely no control over this and I’m an upstanding, well functioning adult but I also have a disability and at times, I’ve witnessed and seen what can happen when your parents aren’t altogether. AND make no mistake it doesn’t matter how you start, it matters how you finish, but I’m glad to have been given the opportunity to start off so well.

2-Making peace with limitations – I don’t know when this happened, but I’m almost sure it happened before the age of 22. At some point I learned to accept my disability. I have Muscular Dystrophy and I use a wheelchair. Faith plays a huge role in my life and probably back in my early 20s, I told myself that this might not change and that no weapon formed against me shall prosper – honestly, this is a scripture verse that bears repeating. I’m also 40 and I’m still doing pretty good.

3-A power chair – you’ve seen the manual ones, the ones people with pretty strong arms (not me) push themselves around? I wasn’t that type -I have a neuromuscular disease mind you- and while my first chair was a manual one, unbeknownst to my parents, I used to hire friends (paying them with push pop candy lollipops and other sweets) to push me around the school hallways. When sixth grade came around, I finally got a chair that I could operate with the flick of my wrist. Free at last I was. Truly.

4-Applying to college and getting accepted. I remember getting the letter from a big college that had accepted me. I didn’t think I was college material and as I went that first year, I found that I liked it a lot.

5-The Blizzard of 1996. I had just received a brand new computer and at the time I was an intern with the federal government. I was 18 years old and the blizzard came and I was furloughed for two weeks that the government decided to shut down. Obviously, it was a shutdown like the ones of today, more about politics, paralyzing inactivity of government and funding cuts, than it  was about the snow at the time. We did receive 20 inches however. Regardless, I remember staying up till all hours of the night tinkering on my brand new machine and really teaching myself how to use it. I never had a computer class and I was in my first year of college. I remember my parents asking me if I was ready to go to sleep for the night and my answer would always be “No”. Technology really does have an impact. I’m convinced without that time, I probably wouldn’t have been able to sell 35K books five years later (traditionally published) if I hadn’t spent the time getting to know how it all worked. Technology is such a powerful tool.

6-First Time Writer’s Contest Entry and Subsequent Win! At 23, I entered the manuscript I had written and finished. I prayed and I sent it off to a large publisher who then was hosting a major writing contest. Months later, I would find out I won which meant publication, a trip to NYC and an a small monetary advance. And I wish that people could go around having moments of validation every few months. We all need that and it rarely happens and you just keep putting in the time.

7-Learning to Drive – Most people don’t know that due to my disability, for me just about everything, every huge thing that I want in life, requires a little more effort than most. Such was the case with not only, first obtaining a ramp accessible van, but then also a way to get the costly technology that hand controls would afford my being able to operate the van properly. We often take freedoms that seem to come fairly easily to some, for granted.

8-Graduation. Because I’m the creative type…that should be enough said, right? It took me forever to get through school. But I did and staying the course, even on and  off over several long years is okay.

9-This may not seem all that life-changing but discovered I like design. Not sure how this will serve me but with programs like Canva.com, and even just actual design and adaptation for myself as I alter my world to make it more accessible, I seem to have a knack for employing some very basic household items, however I can, to “MacGyver-ing” them into accessible and functional things for me. Those are two different design aesthetics I realize, but I’m excited that perhaps one day, the ideas will pay off or just help a select few and that’s okay too!

10-Being a Model.In 2015, I participated in the Bold Beauty Project, DC – a photography project that selected 20 local area women, ALL having different kinds of physical disabilities. It was an awesome experience, one I’ll never forget. All the models including me can be found here: www.BoldBeautyProject.com. There’s even a documentary being made and I’m featured in that too!

Wow, Tracee, what an inspiring, heart-warming list. Not all that serious at all. Well, serious, but also uplifting and fun. 🙂 I am honored to have you share your journey on my blog today and so pleased to make your acquaintance. Your accomplishments are awe-inspiring.

And now, check out Tracee’s book. It sounds fabulous!

(Click on the cover to be taken to the Amazon buy page)

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BIO:

By day, Tracee Lydia Garner is a full time social worker assisting area people with disabilities to navigate their community and increase inclusion on behalf of the disabled population. At night, she turns on her writer self and has penned five novels with a sixth title on the way this year, the sequel to Anchored Hearts, which is tentatively titled, A Warm Embrace. She is a national best-selling and award-winning author and she also speaks frequently and teaches an 8-week writing course at the college level. With little spare time left, she enjoys reading of course, marketing, event planning small soirees and she loves to shop.

Contact Links

Visit me at Teegarner.com

Follow me @Teegarner

 

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Filed under 10 Moments that Changed My Life, Author Blog Post, New Release