Interview with Kelli Pizarro & spotlight of Shanty by the Sea...

We're happy to have Kelly Pizarro with us today talking about her book Shanty by the Sea.

Please give us the first page of the book.

  I caught a glimpse of a couple holding hands, staring through the window of a high-end boutique at a display of china. Yes, the kind that everyone swears they’ll have when they get married, but only a few make it a point to put on their registry and even fewer actually receive as a gift. I didn’t get a good look at the set, but I’m pretty sure it was blue. I was too busy studying the couple.

  I know, I know. So staring at them over my steaming paper cup of coffee is not “catching a glimpse.” It may not be healthy to sit on a bench and watch shoppers accomplish their private-though-public tasks, wondering if their lives mimic your own in any way. But what else is a girl to do on a Thursday afternoon after work? So I sipped the last of my amaretto and honey breve and savored every moment of the view before I ran out of sunlight.

  The couple, appearing to be in their early thirties, were dressed in matching sweaters. Cute, if you’re into that sort of thing. I don’t know if I am or not. My boyfriend only wears one coat, every single day of the year. Gray with black stripes, white around the collar. It’s pretty hard to find anything matchy-matchy when your boyfriend stands a foot tall and spends more time in one day grooming himself than you do all week. Ok, so I don’t have a boyfriend. I have a cat, Mr. Fitzwilliam Darcy. That’s sort of the same thing, right?

From the back cover:

Scarlett Cooper’s goals in life up to this point have been simple enough: run The Little Latte coffee shop by day and finish a novel-in-the-making by night. When her creative writing juices dry up, she visits the local bookstore for inspiration and leaves with a flier promoting an upcoming writer’s retreat in Cape Cod. 

When announced as a winner, Scarlett crosses the state line from New Hampshire into Massachusetts. What she doesn’t realize is the retreat is themed The Great Writers of History, and she has been selected to play the part of starving artist Charles Dickens.

Hilarity ensues as Scarlett dresses in costume and competes against two fellow writers playing the parts of Jane Austen and William Makepeace Thackeray, spends her nights in a tiny shack on a cliff overlooking the sea, and finds herself developing feelings for a local man hired to tend to the retreat pet: a decrepit donkey named Janet.

Although things at the retreat don’t run as smoothly as Scarlett had hoped, and the competitive nature of the other writers tests her in a way reminiscent of Job who lost half his donkeys (one of which was probably named Janet), she learns that no amount of adversity is worth letting go of one’s dreams.

Please tell us five random things we might not know about you.

I prefer rainy, autumn weather over sunshine.

I have Pinterest boards for coffee shop and tea house ideas because I'd love to open one someday!

I impersonate my English Bulldog, Purple Haizely, on a daily basis. It's become the norm in my house.

Although most people might think I am unapproachable at first (it's the face), I'm the goofiest, weirdest human you'll meet and I love random conversations with strangers.

I love cooking and eating Italian food. One day you might catch me spending a summer in Italy. If you do, don't judge how much I have on my plate!

Why did you choose to write this book?

After my diagnosis of breast cancer on my 27th birthday, I began prioritizing many things. One, I realized I spent way too much time worrying if my house was perfect and meals always 100% homemade. I realized I stressed too much over what people thought of me and my writing, and that is why I'd never completed a single book I'd started. Since I was young, I've filled notebooks, typed on old typewriters, and had random computer documents filled with bits of books that would never come to fruition. After chemotherapy was complete and I was able to start life again, I decided I would let a few stresses go and write a story that shows what life might have been like for me had I taken a few different turns. Been born somewhere else, pursued my dreams of running a coffee shop, worked toward finishing my books, etc.

A few years back I made a friend who is my age and had never had a boyfriend or been on a date. She is my kind of quirky, and an absolute delight to talk to. You never know what's going to come out of this girl's mouth. She's just that random. I combined my story with parts of each of our personalities, threw in my dream of visiting New England in the fall, and bam! Shanty by the Sea.

What one thing about writing do you wish non-writers would understand?  

Writers are people with normal lives who are kept up by their imaginary friends. We write because we love it, and because we must, and we thrive on reviews. Every time you review a book, an author somewhere gets their wings.

What is the toughest test you've faced as a writer?

The many rejection letters that come from uninterested publishers. It makes thick skin, for sure.

What do you hope readers to take away from your novel?

Even with life's crazy obstacles, pursuing the dreams and goals God has given you is worth the hard work. You don't need anyone to give you permission to chase after that dream. Not everyone you meet along the way is your cheerleader, either. At the end of the day, you feel better knowing you have taken a few steps forward, despite the great effort it often takes.

What accomplishment(s) are you most proud of, writing-related or not? 

Homeschooling my children is one thing I'm proud of. My oldest turned sixteen this year and graduated her high school studies. She's sitting across from me painting on canvas as I type this. She'll go to work within the next couple months and start college next fall. My other two kids are preparing for a similar path. Getting to be part of this is one of my biggest blessings.

Also, the sheer excitement of finishing five books and coming close to finishing two more is overwhelming. I am proud of myself for that. Life is crazy busy, and I have to make a lot of sacrifices on sleep and time to make this happen.

What do you do for fun when not writing?

Travel, read, cook, visit family, play in the garden, and sit at my favorite local coffee shop and people-watch. These are my favorite things.

What are you working on now?

Two books at present.

One, Blackwater's Daughter, is about a woman, Alesia, who takes a live-in housekeeping and assistant job at Blackwater Plantation in Louisiana. The proprietor is handsome and moody, and has a book full of family secrets stashed away in the spare room. Alesia stumbles upon this book and uncovers more than a brief glimpse into the plantation's past.

Another, which isn't presently titled, features an eccentric twenty-something woman named Lydia who owns and operates a pet bakery in Salem, Massachusetts. When her ex-boyfriend's new love interest is found dead by poisoning with a half-consumed treat from her bakery in her possession, Lydia is the primary suspect. She pulls together with her best friend and a couple other townsfolk to prove her innocence and get her bakery back to running. Involving herself in the tangles of this murder mystery puts Lydia and her Frenchie, Pierrie, in grave danger, but this doesn't keep her from seeking out the truth about the murder... and a few other things she's been avoiding dealing with in her life.

I hope both of these to be finished by the end of the year and ready for querying come January.

Where else can readers find you online?    

Here are some links!

https://www.facebook.com/authorkellipizarro/

https://twitter.com/KelliPizarro

https://books2read.com/SBTS

https://dustybookends.blogspot.com

Bio

Kelli Pizarro was born in East Texas, where she now resides with her husband Julian, and their three children, Lexi, Aly, and Trent.

Christian dystopian and historical novels, with romance sprinkled in here and there, are her favorite reads. She is currently working on her sixth and seventh books.

Most evenings she can be found curled up with a cup of coffee and her laptop. She hopes to own a coffee shop or tea house one day. Her goal as an author is to touch as many hearts as she can with stories that encourage people to seek to know God and His Son, Jesus, more intimately.

You can find Kelli on Facebook and Twitter where she loves connecting with her readers.

Interview with Johnnie Alexander & spotlight of Match You Like Crazy...

We're happy to have Johnnie Alexander with us today talking about her book Match You Like Crazy. To learn more about Johnnie and her book, read on!

Back cover blurb

They have everything in common. So why aren’t they a perfect match?

Bre Fisher wishes she’d said no when her grandmother gave her a trip to Matchmaking Week, especially when Nate Hunter takes the seat beside her on the puddle-jumper to Joy Island. He’s the last person she expected to see.

Nate figures he can’t go home if Bre is his match. The longstanding business rivalry between their families makes romance with a Fisher impossible. 

Yet in addition to the same family expectations and obligations, Bre and Nate have the same interests ~ maybe even the same dream. 

Will a week on Joy Island spark another feud? Or prove they’re a crazy perfect match? 

FIRST PAGE

“Match You Like Crazy”

Resort to Romance Series

Johnnie Alexander

Chapter One

A puddle-jumper!

For the hundredth time since Bre had arrived at the oceanside airport, she wished she had paid more attention when Gran asked if she wanted to take a plane or a boat to Joy Island. The plane seemed the obvious choice since the flight didn’t depart till three. The boat had left the dock at ten that morning. Way too early!

By choosing to fly, she’d had plenty of time to make the drive from her Tampa home to the private airport located along Miami’s southeastern seaboard.

But a puddle-jumper?

She prayed she wouldn’t vomit as she maneuvered the narrow aisle on her way to Seat L-1 near the back of the small plane.

L for Love. Perhaps it was a sign.

Gran had suggested as much when she printed out the ticket and stuffed it in the packet with Bre’s other travel documents. Her gray eyes had sparkled with a mischievous glint. Bre should have summoned the courage to say no.

No to the plane. No to Joy Island. No to the whole matchmaking scheme.

Yet here she was, entrusting her life to a flying tin can to make her grandmother happy. But she refused to sit in a window seat no matter what it said on her ticket.

Each row held three seats—two on the right side of the aisle and one on the left. Row L was empty, and Bre gratefully dropped into L-2, the only seat that wasn’t next to a window. Perhaps L also stood for Luck and no one else had been assigned to the row.

She stowed her tote then opened the texting app on her phone to send a quick “I’m on board” message to Gran and her parents.

“I think you’re in my seat.”

Bre looked up at the man hovering above her. And gasped. It couldn’t be. Not him.

Recognition dawned in his eyes, and a slow smile curved his lips.

“You’re Bre Fisher. Aren’t you?”

“And you’re Nate Hunter. Small world.”

“Too small.” He tapped his phone screen. “I’m pretty sure my ticket said L-2. I’ve got it on here.”

“I’m L-1. It’s just that . . .” Bre gazed toward the window. Outside the plane, palm trees waved their fronds in beat with the tropical breezes wafting from the Atlantic Ocean. The sun shone bright and hot in a perfect blue sky dotted with perfect white clouds. A tranquil picturesque scene if you overlooked the concrete of the tarmac.

But to be among those clouds in that perfect blue? Bre gagged at the thought.

“How about I take the window seat?” Nate offered. “You look a little tense.”

“Thank you.” Bre stood so he could squeeze past her. She’d imagined this day getting worse before it got better but sitting beside Nate Hunter for the duration of the flight was the worst of the worst. Unless she did vomit. She shuddered at the thought of that humiliation.

Please tell us five random things we might not know about you.

1.     My birthday is in a couple weeks!

2.     Captain America is my favorite Avenger.

3.     I traveled through Europe with a penguin travel pillow.

4.     My mom lost the crest on her class ring, so she had it polished and gave it to me when I was thirteen. I’ve been wearing it ever since.

5.     I took my kids out of school for Trilogy Tuesday—when theaters showed all three of the Lord of the Ring movies.

Why did you choose to write this book?

Authors Jill Kemerer and Jessica Patch created the series and asked me to write one of the ten novellas. The concept—ten couples spending Matchmaking Week on a Bahama island owned by two eccentric and wealthy sisters—sounded so fun that I immediately said yes. All the stories in the Resort to Romance Series have the word “Match” in the title.

What do you hope readers to take away from your novel?

This is a light-hearted romance which I hope readers will simply enjoy—an escape from the to-do list to a romantic tropical island. The main characters, Nate and Bre, work in their individual family businesses but they both have an adventurous dream. It’s a story of reconciliation and following one’s heart.

What is something you hope to achieve, writing-related or not?

I’d like to write a screenplay based on a short story that was published in an anthology. And though I don’t expect to ever have the opportunity, I’d love to be a director’s VIP guest on a movie set.

What do you do for fun when you finish a writing project?

Start on the next one!

However, I also enjoy going to the movies, browsing the shelves of my local library, taking walks, and curling up on the couch with a good book.

What are you working on now? 

I’m writing “Blue Moon,” a WWII novella for Barbour’s Hometown Heroines Collection. My heroine, a member of the Women Officers of Public Safety unit, teams up with an Army Intelligence agent to protect a top-secret atom bomb facility from sabotage.

Bio

Johnnie Alexander creates characters you want to meet and imagines stories you won't forget. Her award-winning debut novel, Where Treasure Hides, is a CBA bestseller. She writes contemporaries, historicals, and cozy mysteries, serves on the executive boards of Serious Writer, Inc. and the Mid-South Christian Writers Conference, co-hosts an online show called Writers Chat, and interviews inspirational authors for Novelists Unwind. She also teaches at writers conferences and for Serious Writer Academy. Johnnie lives in Oklahoma with Griff, her happy-go-lucky collie, and Rugby, her raccoon-treeing papillon. Connect with her at www.johnnie-alexander.com and other social media sites via https://linktr.ee/johnniealexndr. 

Where else can readers find you online?   

My monthly newsletter provides fun updates and giveaways. Please sign up at http://johnnie-alexander.com. Connect with me on other social media sites via LinkTree.

Interview with Zoe M. McCarthy & spotlight of The Putting Green Whisperer...

We are so happy to have Zoe M. McCarthy with us today talking about her novel, The Putting Green Whisperer. Zoe is a gifted and prolific author of wonderful, sweet romances! To learn more about Zoe and The Putting Green Whisperer, read on!

Please tell us five random things we might not know about you.

* At ages seven through ten, I lived in Haiti during the rise of Papa Doc.

* At ages sixteen through seventeen, I lived on the Guantanamo Bay, Cuba Naval Base and was evacuated for three months during the Cuban Missile Crisis.

* At age twenty, I lived five months in Bangkok, Thailand during the Vietnam War.

* I graduated from the University of South Florida with a BA in Mathematics.

                                  *Before my writing career, I was an actuary and married an actuary.

Why did you choose to write this book?

John and I joined my sister and my brother-in-law at a PGA seniors golf tournament at Rock Barn Country Club and Spa in Conover, NC. My sister and I sat on the fifteenth green and watched the over-age-fifty golfers putt and move on to the next tee. In one group, a male and a female caddy stood side by side on the edge of the green with their backs to us. The two young caddies talked quietly while their players prepared to putt. He was tall, and she was petite with her blond ponytail protruding from her pink ball cap. My heart experienced a sappy moment, and romantic what-ifs cluttered my mind. I turned to my sister, pointed at the caddies, and said, “My next book will be about those two caddies.”

What one thing about writing do you wish non-writers would understand? 

Writing now includes a lot of hard work publishers used to do. Marketing and platform building are part of the writer’s job. Monetary benefit for most authors is small. Authors bear criticism from acquisition professionals, critique partners, editors, readers, and reviewers.

What is the toughest test you've faced as a writer?

Preparing many events and announcements for a book’s release date, then an online bookstore fails to add the book in time. This has happened to me twice.

What do you hope readers take away from your novel?

Without God in our suffering, we often become self-centered, abandon our spiritual gifts, and hinder our relationships with others. In The Putting-Green Whisperer, a young woman who has suffered losses has abandoned her dreams and gifts. She rediscovers a better version of herself through the friendship of a godly young man and his Lord. But we also glory in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. Romans 5:3-4

What accomplishment(s) are you most proud of, writing-related or not?

To perform our forecasts, the actuarial department needed information from the hospital negotiators. The hospital negotiators didn’t trust us to keep information confidential. Actuaries are known to have the best scrubbed data so they can make good projections. I decided my team would humble ourselves and provided to the negotiators data on each hospital in information rich summaries. Soon after they got a taste of what we could do for them, they trusted us. They shared with us the non-data information we actuaries needed, came to us for help in analyzing situations, and asked me to return as a consultant when I retired. I graciously turned them down.

What do you do for fun when not writing?

Husband John and I like to canoe the New River. We look forward to spring to explore the twenty-six-mile lake at our lake cabin. Day drives through the mountains and valleys in the Blue Ridge Mountains is another favorite pastime. I enjoy knitting and crocheting shawls for a prayer shawl ministry. Entertaining my six grandchildren is fun.

What are you working on now? 

Two of my books recently released. So, I’m working on promoting, the Kindle version of Good Breaks in the collection, Love, Sweet Love, its print version as a stand-alone book, and my nonfiction, Tailor Your Fiction Manuscript in 30 Days. Writing-wise I’m working on edits for the second book in the Twisty Creek Series, The Identical Woman in a Black Dress, which follows The Invisible Woman in a Red Dress.

Back cover blurb

Suddenly unemployed, Allie Masterson returns home to Cary, North Carolina where she caddies for her father on the PGA Seniors Tour. There, she encounters a man who possesses an alluring gift of reading the contours of the green. Fascinated with his uncanny ability, Allie is excited to meet the Green Whisperer—until she discovers that the easygoing caddy is actually Shoo Leonard, the boy who teased her relentlessly when they were kids. Despite Allie’s reservations, when Shoo is faced with having to overcome a hand injury, she agrees to use her sport science degree to become his trainer...and then she falls for him.

 Shoo Leonard is grateful to Allie for her singular determination to get him ready for the PGA tour, but he isn’t ready for anything more. Still raw from a broken engagement and focused on his career, he’s content to be her fist-bumping buddy…but then he falls for her.

What seems like a happily-ever-after on the horizon takes a turn when Allie decides she’s become a distraction to Shoo’s career. Is it time for her to step away or can The Putting Green Whisperer find the right words to make her stay?

Please give us the first page of the book.

Allie turned the volume down on the radio and rested her forehead on the steering wheel. How would she unglue her behind from the seat and go inside?
After several moments, she sat up, bounced her knee against the locked steering wheel, and tapped down the sun visor, blocking the glare from October’s late afternoon sun. The rearview mirror reflected all her earthly stuff mounded in the back of the SUV. Would her old bedroom be available to dump her things, or was it now a storage or sewing room? Maybe Dad and Karen would direct her to the basement bedroom, which had once been used for guest overflow.

The front door was still painted Carolina blue to honor UNC. The dogwood in the middle of the yard had filled out from the spindly tree Mom planted a few months before she died. Except for the bushier tree, everything else looked the same as it had before she’d left North Carolina to live with Aunt Mae in Atlanta.

Now, seven years and a new stepmother later, she was back in Cary. Maybe that was a good thing. Since Aunt Mae had moved to California, nothing was left for her in Atlanta.
Allie drummed her thumbs against the steering wheel. Maybe she should’ve driven to California. Aunt Mae would’ve welcomed her. Allie had saved enough money from her spring and summer jobs to make the trip from Atlanta to the now defunct Florida position. Would her savings have taken her to California?

Sure. If she’d starved herself and had run on fumes the last hundred miles.
Allie grabbed her tan canvas bag from the passenger seat and got out of the car.
Mom, I need you. Ask your God to help Dad and I reconnect. Please.

Bio

Zoe M. McCarthy is a full-time speaker, author, and blogger on writing. She writes contemporary

Christian romances involving tenderness and humor. Believing opposites distract, Zoe creates heroes and heroines who learn to embrace their differences. On suggestions from an agent and a publishing house editor, Zoe developed a detailed resource, Tailor Your Fiction Manuscript in 30 Days, for writers who have manuscripts that need tailoring for publication and writers who want to write the stories on their hearts but need help to put them to paper. Zoe and her husband live in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. She teaches a community Bible study and leads writing workshops.

Where else can readers find you online?   

https://zoemmccarthy.com

https://www.amazon.com/Zoe-M.-McCarthy/e/B00ODC1ZNW/

We're so happy to have Amy Anguish with us today talking about her book An Unexpected Legacy.  For more information about Amy and her book, read on!

Please tell us five random things we might not know about you.

1.     I’ve lived in eight different states in my lifetime.

2.     I am married to my first and only kiss.

3.     I once had pink streaks in my hair.

4.     I am not a dog person. Cats all the way.

5.     I hate coffee but adore hot tea.

Why did you choose to write this book?

I like to think stories choose me instead of me choosing them. A scene or idea pops into my head, then it grows ... and grows. This book started with just me imagining a girl sitting at an iron table outside a smoothie shop we used to go to occasionally in Round Rock, TX. What if she got interrupted from her book ... by a cute guy? It grew from there.

What one thing about writing do you wish non-writers would understand? 

Editing is hard! No matter how many times we go back through a story, we’re likely to miss at least one thing. And it’s not easy to change it once it’s been sent to publication. So, unless it’s a glaring mistake, it will probably just stay there.

What is the toughest test you've faced as a writer?

Learning to market myself and my books. It’s one thing to write a story down, but another thing completely to convince someone else that they should give it a chance rather than reading another book. It’s not something I ever imagined having to know. In the dreams I had as a teenager, I just figured I would write the book and someone else would sell it for me. I wish!

What do you hope readers to take away from your novel?

Just because people are Christians doesn’t mean their lives are perfect, or that they don’t struggle with things like faith, trust, and forgiveness. Christians are humans, too. They just have the help of their heavenly Father to get through the rough spots.

What accomplishment(s) are you most proud of, writing-related or not?

Being a mommy. 😊

What are you working on now? 

I have a new book coming out in April. It’s in edits right now, so I’m back and forth working on that. It’s about two sisters who don’t get along, forced to spend a summer together. While they’re dealing with that, they also deal with their own relationships, and struggles with faith and hope when life sends bad things their way.

I’m also editing another manuscript to start submitting it this year with hopes of publication. It’s about a girl who takes home a baby because its parents die in a wreck. She has to learn how to move past survivor’s guilt, the true meaning of love, and that sometimes God puts us in a place for a reason, but it might not be the reason we think.

What do you do for fun when not writing?

I’m pretty crafty. I dabble some in painting, crochet, sewing and quilting. And last summer I kept a garden and ended up canning some of that. It was hard work, but so satisfying to see the jars of veggies my family would eat this winter.

Where else can readers find you online?

   http://abitofanguish.weebly.com and http://www.facebook.com/amyanguishauthor

Bio

Amy R Anguish grew up a preacher's kid, and in spite of having lived in seven different states that are all south of the Mason Dixon line, she is not a football fan. Currently, she resides in Tennessee with her husband, daughter, and son, and usually a bossy cat or two. Amy has an English degree from Freed-Hardeman University that she intends to use to glorify God, and she wants her stories to show that while Christians face real struggles, it can still work out for good.

Back cover blurb

When Chad Manning introduces himself to Jessica Garcia at her favorite smoothie shop, it's like he stepped out of one of her romance novels. But as she tentatively walks into a relationship with this man of her dreams, secrets from their past threaten to shatter their already fragile bond.  Chad and Jessica must struggle to figure out if their relationship has a chance or if there is nothing between them but a love of smoothies.

Please give us the first page of the book.

1978

“Don’t even think about it.”

Sandy stared across the room at Rob’s eyes. Spellbinding. The brightest shade of blue she had ever seen. “About what?”

Ruth stepped between Sandy and her view. “That boy.”

“Which one?” Sandy asked, although she had a guess. She trailed her finger along the snack table, reached for a pretzel as a way to get a better view. His new letterman jacket hung loosely on his lean frame, his long fingers playing with the edge of his Bible as he stood talking to several other boys in the youth group.

Ruth turned Sandy to look at her. “You know which one. That Manning boy. That family’s no good.”

“How can you say that?”

Ruth huffed. “Are you coming or not?” She motioned toward the door. “Daddy’s waiting in the car.”

Sandy intentionally walked around the table in the opposite direction of her older sister so she could get a little closer to Rob as she left. Her heart sped up a bit as she wondered what it would feel like to have her hand in place of his Bible. He looked up, noticed her stare, and gave her a grin before she could duck her head.

Ruth caught up and nudged Sandy again as she slowed down. “Do you know where they’re living?”

“In the old Potter house.” Sandy frowned. “What does that have to do with anything?”

Ruth opened her mouth, as if to say something, then shook her head. “Just leave him alone, Sandy. He’s no good for you. You’re going to end up with your heart broken.”

“Don’t be silly, Ruthie.” Sandy pushed the door open. “I’m going to marry that boy.”