Taryn's Snippit Sundays~ "You were riding a horse on the beach?" CASTAWAY HEARTS #excerpt

 

Twice orphaned, Catherine Barrett arrives in Virginia a stranger to her closest kin and secretly engaged to the one man her family would disapprove of—her seafaring grandfather’s apprentice. Add to her troubles, the rich and intriguing older brother of her secret betrothed, Dawson Randolph, a plantation owner who is as heartless as he is handsome. Heartbroken when her intended sets sail for his maiden voyage, Catherine finds it difficult to adjust to her new life, hoping to befriend the one man who is, undoubtedly, the match her grandparents wish for her. Dawson’s distaste for her secret engagement to his brother makes it clear he has no designs for marriage to anyone. Especially her.

Ten years since the tragic loss of his young wife and infant son, Dawson Randolph is convinced love and marriage is a fool’s game and resents being pardon to his brother’s hidden engagement. Damned by his instant attraction and his own growing desire, Dawson vows to befriend her against his better judgment. Determined to bring her happiness in a time of fear and uncertainty, Dawson puts aside his animosity to become her confidant, only to realize Catherine holds the key to his heart. When tragedy strikes at sea, Catherine’s guilt pushes Dawson to the fringes of her life as madness consumes her.

Can his love save her before she drowns in her own grief? Or is he doomed to love her from a distance, always in the shadow of her love for his dead brother?

 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

     “I did not spy, young Miss. I was out for a late night horse ride on the beach, and I heard a ruckus. I figured I better check things out to make sure someone or something wasn’t drowning.”

     There was much more to it than that, but she ventured no further questions in that regard.

     “You were riding a horse on the beach?” This thought piqued her interest.

     “Yes. I couldn’t sleep…” Dawson began. “I have several, do you like to ride?”

     “Yes, but I’ve already been warned away from it.” Anger singed her insides. “Again, it’s not something a lady, like myself, should be doing.”

     “Well now, that’s a might shameful.” Dawson’s lips curled up on one side before he drew on his pipe and looked thoughtful. “I tell you what. If you like to ride, I’d be more than happy if you’d ride one of my fine mares. Gypsy’s mine and trusts only me, but I have several others that are good and gentle for a lady like you.”

Friday Spotlight- @catromance Cat Shaffer's Bittersweet #TMPress @FictionWitches

Coulter Bancroft returns from battle seeking the peace of his family farm. Instead he finds chaos: his stepmother dead, his father dying and his fiancée married to another man. His pain reaches a new level when he learns his father’s will demands a legitimate heir by Coulter’s 30th birthday to keep his inheritance—and guardianship of his teenage half-sister.

Amelia Strong has her own secrets to keep. When Coulter takes her in after she collapses in front of his horse, bruised, sick and frail, Amelia can’t imagine that within a few weeks, she’ll offer to marry him and give him that heir if he will divorce her and set her up to begin a new life after the child is born.

What neither of them realizes is that Amelia’s beloved, listed among the war’s casualties, is actually alive and going mad. When he spots Coulter and Amelia in Cincinnati on their honeymoon and begins to stalk the Bancroft family, the result is a suspenseful game of cat-and-mouse game that can only end in death.

Author Bio: Cat Shaffer is a native Buckeye who saw the light and moved to Kentucky over 20 years ago. Able to say “Louisville” like a native, she adores living in the land of beautiful horses and fast women...no, wait, it goes the other way around! Away from the keyboard, she's a mother and grandmother, a Red Cross volunteer, and leads her church choir. She lives with a big Sheltie and a gray tabby who keep her humble by reminding her of her place as their servant. www.catshaffer.com

#FFF- Mac Liam by @ReneeVincent @FictionWitches #TMPress

 Click image to purchase for Kindle

$2.99

A tortured soul….

Breandán Mac Liam, the strapping young hunter from Ireland’s lush forests, is in love with Mara, an ineligible beautiful princess. For seven long years, he has been vividly haunted by her memory, taunted by the throes of his heartache. And not even the thought of her marriage to a Northman can extinguish the fierce, burning desire running rampant through his soul.

An innocent heart….

Mara, the spirited Connacht princess, has no idea she is the object of the Irishman’s longing. She is living out her days on Inis Mór, raising a troubled son and trying to endure the cruel loneliness that afflicts her heart.

A deadly secret….

Ordered by the king on his deathbed, Breandán must return to Mara and bring her through the perilous lands of Connacht to fulfill her father’s last dying wish. But as their worlds collide, Breandán not only finds himself wrapped in the arms of Mara’s embrace, but thrown into a struggle to defend his honor.

With Mara caught between the family she loves and the father she knows, can Breandán uncover the mystery of her past and still protect her from a secret that threatens them all?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

I just finished reading Mac Liam this week and truly enjoyed it.

Doing my Happy Dance- #1k1hr Challenges, #Writing & a 4 out of 5 #Review for Castaway Hearts! Squee!

Today has been rather exciting for me.

Castaway Hearts first REVIEW is up onMEL'S BOOK BLOG(click link below)   

I also feel great today as I added over 4,000 words to my current work in progress yesterday by doing #1k1hr challenges with a few other fellow writers. 3 hours of that and I had almost 4k. In total I knocked out 4,018, which leaves me not all that far from my 80k (approx) word count goal. Thanks for the kick in the tush to get writing- (You can follow them on Twitter if you click on their names)

Candace Havens

Alyssa Day

Amy Denim

Heather Riccio

Pamela V Mason

Seeing as how I'm not far from it, I can feel "the end" just around the corner and that generally gets me pumped to finish writing.

Add to that, I'm starting to get excited about writing the next one, which means I'm going to be scouring Amazon's Kindle Store for some books about Pacific Coast surfing, the history of surfing and competition, etc. for research. Gotta know how to speak the lingo and catch a gnarly wave. (If anyone has any good suggestions on books for researching that subject, please feel free to leave a comment about it.)

My visit to Hallee's blog yesterday also got me to thinking about whether there will be a continuation of Castaway Hearts somewhere in the future. It's definitely something I've thought about and I am considering it. I have notes and ideas jotted, though I know further research will be necessary to travel forward a few years in time with each new heroine/hero from Catherine and Dawson's family tree. It's not completely off the table, so I will be chewing on that for a bit until I feel the "draw" to begin another one. I have a feeling that it will have to wait until I'm at least finished with the surf novel mentioned above.

And now, seeing as how its the first day of summer vacation, I'm off to see whether I can get any writing done before the little monsters need to be fed (they do have to be fed, right?) ;)

Have a wonderful day! Write on/Read on!

IMPROMPTU Visit #Author @KathyLLogan #FREE #eBook to 1 commenter!

Today I'd like to welcome Katherine Lowry Logan to an Impromptu "Thursdays" with Taryn visiting. Thanks for joining us and- Yay!

1 commenter will win a FREE copy of The Ruby Brooch, so make sure to use your blogger sign in or leave your email addy as You (@) Whatever (dot) com so I can contact you.

I will notify the winning commenter tomorrow morning with the Smashwords coupon code for your free download in the format of your choice.

What book(s) most influenced you as a writer?

In September 1996, I read my first Elizabeth Lowell’s book Winter Fire. I loved it. Over the next several weeks, I read her entire back list. Then I moved on to Linda Howard, Beatrice Small and several other romance authors. A year later, I’d read over 250 romance novels and had convinced myself I could write one, too. Without a plan in mind, I sat down at my computer and started writing. Ten weeks later, I wrote The End to a 115,000-word, time-travel romance. Of course, the story went through a dozen rewrites before it was published last month. 

What book do you read over and over again?

I really don’t read anything again. There are so many books on my TBR list that to reread a book deprives me of the joy of discovering something new. I remember reading the Tolkien Trilogy in the 1970s. I cried when I read the last page, but oddly, I never wanted to read the books again. The first experience was too incredible to replicate. 

Tuesday Trio-

1)      Movie-  My favorite movie of all time is Gone with the Wind. Second would be Somewhere in Time

2)      Music- I love Adele when I’m running, but I listen to all kinds of music, except hard rock. While I’m writing, I listen to Michael Dulin Radio on Pandora.  

3)      Decadent Dessert- I’m hooked on Orange Leaf Frozen Yogurt. I like to mix vanilla and chocolate and sprinkle chocolate chips and strawberries on top.

What’s the most interesting or bizarre bit of trivia you’ve learned from researching for a novel?

A week before Christmas 2010, I was researching guns and decided to visit one of our local gun shops. I walked through the front door of a very crowded gun store and stood there not sure where to go. A young man working the cash registered asked if he could help me. I said, “I need a gun that will shoot as many cows in the shortest amount of time.”

The store fell silent. A couple dozen men stared at me like I was crazy.  I cleared my throat and explained that I was a romance writer and that my heroine was caught in the middle of a buffalo stampede and needed a weapon. The shock wore off and answers started flying. “She’s needs . . .” I still laugh when I think of that visit. 

Novel on your Nightstand:

Who/what are you currently reading?

I’m always reading several books at the same time—fiction, non-fiction, and craft or marketing.  The three at the top of my Kindle list are: 

Fifty Shades of Grey (I have to find out what all the fuss is about!)

Mile Markers by Kristin Armstrong (A book about running and relationships)

How to Market Your EBook by Mike McCann

Whom would you cast as your Hero & Heroine if your book became a movie?

I’m open to suggestions:

·         Cullen is from Scotland and graduated from Harvard. He’s a lawyer, 6’2, 180, black hair and blue eyes, born in 1822. He has a Kennedy-esque charisma and a terrible temper.

·         Kit is 5’2”, long blond hair, green eyes, a paramedic with extensive survival training, and an expert equestrian, born in 1987, or so she thought. She’s spunky. Not particularly caught up in appearances, although she is an heiress to one of the top three Thoroughbred operations in the world. 

BLURB:

From the white-plank fenced pastures of Lexington, Kentucky to the beautiful Bay of San Francisco, The Ruby Brooch, a saga rich in detail and mystery, follows a young woman’s physical and emotional journey as she searches for her identity in the mid-nineteenth century. 

As the lone survivor of a car crash that killed her parents, paramedic Kit MacKlenna makes a startling discovery that further alters her life. A faded letter and a well-worn journal reveal that she was abandoned on her father’s doorstep as a baby. The only clues to her identity are a blood-splattered shawl, a locket that bears a portrait of a nineteenth-century man, and a Celtic brooch with mystical powers. Following notes in her late father’s journal, Kit sets out on a quest to solve the murders of her birth parents and discover her true identity. Under the guise of the Widow MacKlenna, Kit calls on the power of the ruby brooch and is swept back in time to Independence, Missouri in the year 1852. 

Upon arriving in the past, she encounters Cullen Montgomery, an egotistical Scotsman with a penchant for seducing widows. The San Francisco-bound lawyer happens to resemble the ghost who has haunted Kit since childhood. She quickly finds the Bach-humming, Shakespeare-quoting man to be over-bearing and his intolerance for liars threatens her quest.

If she can survive his accusations and resist his tempting and passionate embrace, she might be able to find the answers she seeks and return home without changing history or leaving her heart on the other side of time.

The Ruby Brooch is available at-

AMAZON

BARNES & NOBLE

SMASHWORDS

 

KATHERINE LOWRY LOGAN

Katherine is a long distance runner and an avid reader who turned her love of reading into a passion for writing contemporary and historical romances.

A graduate of Rowan University in New Jersey, she earned a BA in Psychology with a minor in Criminal Justice. Following graduation, Katherine attended the Philadelphia Institute for Paralegal Training earning a General Practice Certification. She returned to Central Kentucky and worked for twenty years as a paralegal and law firm office manager. With an educational focus on psychology and the law, Katherine’s plots typically involved a mystery for the hero and heroine to solve while on an emotional journey seeking love and forgiveness.

She is currently working on a contemporary story that is a companion book to The Ruby Brooch. She plans to release the ebook on September 15, the same day she runs the Air Force Marathon in Dayton, OH. 

Katherine lives in Lexington, KY. She is a widow and a grandmother, and spends several weeks every year in New York City with three of her five grandchildren. The other two live in Northern Kentucky, making it possible to attend ballgames and Grandparents’ Day.

 You can find out more about Katherine at the following places-

WEBSITE

NOTES FROM TABOR LANE BLOG

FACEBOOK

TWITTER

#Journey to #Publication & #Spotlight on @DevonMatthews_ #Blog #Excerpt #Readers

My journey to publication has really been a long time coming, at least in my mind. I've known I wanted to write since I was a child, but it wasn't until 2006, with my stepson already in school and my daughter soon to be heading that way, I knew the time I spent as a stay-at-home-mom was going to open up and that besides housework, I would have time for other things.

Something I hadn't spent much time doing since I'd moved in 2001, gotten married and had my daughter, was write. I thought about it constantly but kept believing, with the self-doubt I'd carried most my life, that I probably couldn't accomplish it. I knew there was a partially finished novel tucked away in my closet or a drawer somewhere, and several other novel "ideas" scribbled and scratched out in notebooks and on scraps of paper, but there was no encouragement nearby to say, "You should definitely take your writing back up."

And then I got a friend request from an old schoolmate and therein came the encouragement, so I really started digging in to the unfinished manuscript and in a fit of frenzy, I finally put the finish on a nearly 10-year-old project. It had been hard to give birth to because some of the situations in the novel hit so close to home for me personally, but I did it. To that friend, and my mom, I'm forever grateful for your encouragement. You will NEVER know how much!

But just like getting my first tattoo, finishing that first manuscript was addictive. It bolstered me, lifted me up- I was hooked on that feeling of self-satisfaction of creating something and finishing it. Of course, that manuscript might never see the light of day- or I might someday polish it up and publish it, but it was with great enthusiasm and confidence from completing that 1st one, that I dove headfirst in and started writing with serious intentions and with a sense of pride I hadn't felt before. I'm working on my 11th manuscript at the moment and hoping I finally found my mojo again because for a while, I think I'd lost heart. The burnout nearly wiped out my desire to write, but I'm getting it back, bit by bit... (bird by bird)

Castaway Hearts is actually the 3rd novel I wrote, over the summer of 2007, between a computer crash and the relief when those files I hadn't backed up were recovered before the hard drive was trashed completely. So that gives me even more joy to be able to share this story with you, the public. It was saved from oblivion, once upon a time.

And so, today I'd love it if you would swing by and join me at
Western Historical Romance Author Devon Matthews' Blog
where she's honoring me with an author spotlight and I'm sharing another excerpt from the now available Castaway Hearts.

1 Year #Anniversary- #BookContract #writer #TMPress

March 13th, 2011- I didn't know it that day, what was waiting in my email for me, but when I opened that email up, I nearly hyperventilated with excitement when KJ at Turquoise Morning Press offered me a contract for Castaway Hearts.

Now here we are a year later, less than 3 weeks away from the release of my novel and I still get giddy all over again thinking about the day I opened that email. I was about to start painting the living room, hadn't thought much about my email over the weekend and then decided to check it before I got started because I knew painting was going to be an all day job.

A few days later, March 18th, I signed my contract, then the next day I posted And So It Begins...

WIPlash Wednesdays- #Research for #CastawayHearts

In 2007 when I started writing Castaway Hearts, I didn't know a lot about Virginia. Originally I'd intended to set the story in Boston, but something drew me to the Norfolk area and the need to write "near" there, rather than further north along the coast. My story also was originally going to be set more in the mid-to-late 1800's rather than the 1790s, but again, situations and circumstances changed as I began to write the story.

One of the most important pieces of research material I used for Castaway Hearts was the book-

I used Wikipedia to figure out the timeline for corsets and stays, when they were and weren't in "fashion."

To understand the proper name for quilt designs I went here- Quilt Patterns Names

Links for other places I used for research follow-

An Outline of American Literature
The Food Timeline
18th Century History- The City of Norfolk, Va
American History Timeline 1780-2010
Great Inventions
Fire and Light
1780s Decade Timeline
Norfolk Highlights 1584-1881
Virginia Historical Society
Tobacco Timeline: The Seventeen Century
Tobacco Timeline: The Eighteenth Century
Virginia History
Virginia, Timeline of State History

I'm not sure I can honestly pinpoint every detail I learned doing this research or what I've used within the story because a lot of it now seems just common knowledge to me. One of the things that always sticks out most is that I learned matches didn't exist yet and therefore my characters, in the 1790s would have used tinderboxes and spills (tightly wound paper) to light their pipe tobacco. And though most of the information I found in these research resources did not appear, by direct means, in my novel, all the knowledge I gathered helped build the scenery and behaviors of my characters and the time in which they lived.

****

Currently I'm still working on the same WIP, I'm up to 63,156 words of approximately 80K. I left off at a very pivotal moment in the hero's life that deals with his mother, brothers and their deadbeat father. The stormy weekend and my husband's oral surgery has bumped my writing time to the back burner while I take care of family matters, but I'm hoping to get back to work on it today.

Castaway Hearts #Book #Excerpt 2- Mermaid in the Moonlight

Dawson gave the horse a good prod with his heels, and she took off. The wind whipped through his hair and the moonlight illuminated his way through the lush forest across the road from his home, down the embankment to the edge of the beach. Even in the dark, guided by the pale moonlight, his horse knew the way. This was not their first midnight ride.

As they reached the clearing, Dawson gave another prod. Gypsy opened up and flew across the sand. She sensed her master’s troubled heart and in turn mirrored his desire for freedom and wild abandon. Dawson let her run, her thunderous hooves muffled by the gritty sand beneath.

The horse galloped across the sand for a good quarter mile before Dawson gave her a nudge and pulled back on the reins to slow her to a halt. He stared out at the sea, the moon, the stars, and found he felt small, petty, and irritated still.

Aggravation crept into his heart as he looked out into the bay. Nathaniel knew what Dawson went through in his youth and yet his foolish little brother still wanted to take a bride.

Dawson threw a glance over his shoulder to the cliff-side home of Captain and Mrs. Barrett. The building housed the one idea he never imagined he could want.

Catherine.

Don’t dwell on this waif. She’s not yours to want after or worry about.

His brother was another story. Nathaniel had a great mind for sailing, but he had always been bohemian, never content to stay still for long.

A riotous slosh sounded in an alcove to his left and captured his attention. Inch by inch, he guided Gypsy closer to the rocky cliff, afraid of what he might find there. He thought perhaps a fish or some other sea creature had washed ashore, unable to make its way back out to sea.

As he stole closer, he made out the form, but it was not a fish or any other animal he had ever seen wash up on the beach before.

Wrapped in wispy white fabric that rippled in the wind, a ghostly female figure began to solidify in his sight. Dawson pulled Gypsy to a standstill. It reminded him of mermaid stories he had heard as a child, but this was no mermaid. This was an apparition, floating along on the breeze.

The fabric she wore was so thin he could make out the supple curves of her breasts, his eyes traveling down over her full hips, and the long slender legs that carried her to the water’s edge.

Dawson rubbed his eyes with his fists. Surely, the moonlight had deceived him.

When he looked back the image before him remained and his body responded to the nearly bare-skinned specter, so pale in the night. Dawson stared in silence, her body dancing, gyrating beneath the pale moon. The unwelcome tightening of his breeches made him well aware that this ghost was far more than a figment of his imagination. Her lengthy dark tresses trailed behind her, making him think of a mermaid’s tail. But her thin cotton nightgown revealed no signs of transformation as it clung to her shapely thighs. As she waded further into the water, a sharp gust of wind caught the top of her gown, billowing the wide neckline over her flesh. The moonlight caught her profile for a moment. The dainty nose and pouty lips seemed suddenly familiar, but they slipped into the shadows as his eyes fell to the rise and fall of her breasts again.

That’s when it hit him.

Catherine!

Gone was the prim and proper young woman from earlier in the evening. The stiffness in her before had given way to a sensuality so fluid he could feel it in the air and her movements. Her body tempted him like a waking dream, as she blew in on the breeze, wild and free. It reminded him of desires he had not visited in years.

In the moon’s glow, milky skinned and delicate, Catherine was oblivious that anyone watched her dance of free-spirited joy.

Dawson’s blood pounded in his veins the longer he spied on the young minx.

Those supple curves had crossed his mind earlier in the evening, those swells and dips along her edges made his fingers itch and his manhood betray him in the most uncomfortable way.

His brother’s words taunted him. He might find someone else…it flickered through his mind in disdainful amusement.

Gall burned through him—for his body betrayed him in that instance.

He caught his breath and turned one last hungry gaze toward her before he rode off in the other direction.

Then he gave Gypsy full rein to slice through the night as she carried him away from a temptation that would burn him if he didn’t get as far away as possible.