Summer Adventure
May 14, 2017 by A Slice of Orange in category Guest Posts, Spotlight, Writing tagged as Adventures, Kat Martin, romantic suspense, Summer
Please welcome best-selling author, Kat Martin, to A Slice of Orange
Kat is a graduate of the University of California at Santa Barbara where she majored in Anthropology and also studied History. Currently residing with her Western-author husband, L. J. Martin, in Missoula, Montana, Kat has written sixty eight Historical and Contemporary Romantic Suspense novels. More than sixteen million copies of her books are in print and she has been published in twenty foreign countries. Her last novel, INTO THE FIRESTORM, took the #7 spot on the New York Times Bestseller list. This will be the 15th novel in a row to be included on that prestigious list. Kat is currently at work on her next Romantic Suspense.
Make sure you read about Kat’s special May contest. You will find more information after her blog post.
Summer Adventure
Every summer my husband and I try to have some kind of adventure. Not the hearty kind we used to undertake–like riding horseback into the high Sierras or tent camping for a week in Montana. But whatever we choose, summer is great time for a getaway.
This year, we’re driving from our home in Montana to the Western Writers of America conference in Kansas City, Missouri. We’ll take the back roads, meander two-lane highways that wind through six different states.
Along the way we hope to visit old writer friends, Kathleen and Michael Gear–authors of the PEOPLE series that takes place 10,000 years ago. They live on a buffalo ranch in Wyoming.
From there, we’ll head for the Dakotas, spend a little time in Rapid City, a great old West town. Lots of historic buildings and fun art galleries.
Staying off the beaten path, you can find all sorts of intriguing bits of history. Sioux City sits right on the Missouri, plenty of steamboat lore, and you can learn about Louis and Clark in Omaha. If you’ve never done a cross country road trip, it’s really a worthwhile adventure.
Speaking of highway adventures, BEYOND REASON travels the roadways of Texas. It’s the story of Carly Drake, a young woman who inherits her grandfather’s trucking firm and all the problem that go with it–including murder.
Carly’s biggest problem, however, turns out to be six foot-five-inches of solid male muscle–handsome, mega-rich, powerful and controlling, Lincoln Cain.
It’s high action all the way and of course plenty of hot romance. I hope you’ll watch for BEYOND REASON and that you enjoy it.
So…what’s your favorite adventure? Love to hear about it. Have a great summer and happy reading!
Kat
BEYOND REASON
She’s determined to be successful—no matter who tries to stop her.
More info →
WEBSITE: http://www.katmartin.com/
VIDEO LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y7eAZvxU-VM
SOCIAL MEDIA
Twitter: https://twitter.com/katmartinauthor
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/KatMartinAuthor
Contests Contests Contests
SPECIAL CONTEST: http://www.katmartin.com/beyond-reason-giveaway/
To CELEBRATE the release of BEYOND REASON, enter Kat’s new contest for a chance to win a KINDLE FIRE 7″ Display, Wi-Fi, 8 GB and a Kindle copy of AGAINST THE WILD, AGAINST THE SKY and AGAINST THE TIDE. Contest runs from May 1, 2017 through June 30, 2017.
MAY CONTEST: http://www.katmartin.com/monthly-contest/
For May, Kat Martin is giving away to FIVE winners an audio edition of one of her AGAINST series books, plus a copy of INTO THE FIRESTORM.
4 1 Read more
Spring’s Finest
May 13, 2017 by Sally Paradysz in category From a Cabin in the Woods by Members of Bethlehem Writers Group, Writing tagged as kindness, life, Sally Paradysz, SpringThe Taste of Spring
When I was young, I lived in western Massachusetts. To earn money for a new bike, I picked blueberries at the large blueberry farm in our town. The owner, Blueberry Joe!, let me pick every day that I could get there as it was miles away, and it became something wonderful for me in those years before I turned sixteen and could get a real job. It took a very long time until I could make enough money for my bike, but the fault was mine as I ate more berries than I picked for sale.
I think the love of all berries, but especially blueberries, has stayed with me all these years. I have bushes of my own now in the field, and it is yet another one of the miracles of nature for me. We are having many bees pollinating this year, so the crop should be a good one. My uncle had bee hives in his back yard so I was able to watch the process of beekeeping and the honey that I still love.
As a child, I loved listening to the bees, and watching them fly free. At times, they were not even looking for a flower and it seemed to me that they were flying just for the feel of it. The wind on their body, the noise of the humming, the high-pitched zzzzzzzzz, all turning my heart into a love of mixed emotions much like the walls of honey-combs in my uncle’s white bee hives.
So now I move on from the taste of spring to the smell.
Lilacs are one of my favorite spring fragrances. I love to stop by a bush and inhale my deepest breath, wishing it would last all year round. Its time is short for flowers so one must do this as often as possible. My other favorite is viburnum. Mix these two together in a bouquet, and you almost cannot take the powerful aroma it gives. I then carry it forever in my mind, and I think the flowers know that.
Flowers are akin to kindness my heart says. If I didn’t have them now in my life a part of me would dissolve, I fear, and all I counted on for spring might be lost. For it is kindness that makes the most sense anymore, and it follows me like a shadow once I recognize that piece. It is tender and yet unbearable if you don’t receive it.
Like the sprout that is hidden within the seed, all of us struggle in our life to be seen and heard, and listened to. If we have this kindness in our life our sense of failure fades away, and we again trust ourselves to see things as we perceive them to be…and then rest.
Sally Paradysz
https://sites.google.com/site/sallywparadysz/
http://sallywparadysz.blogspot.com/
Sally Paradysz writes from a book-lined cabin in the woods beside the home she built from scratch. She is an ordained minister of the Assembly of the Word, founded in 1975. For two decades, she has provided spiritual counseling and ministerial assistance. Sally has completed undergraduate and graduate courses in business and journalism. She took courses at NOVA, and served as a hotline, hospital, and police interview volunteer in Bucks County, PA. She is definitely owned by her two Maine Coon cats, Kiva and Kodi.
Read more about Sally’s life in her memoir FROM SCRATCH; available in paperback and ebook.
My Life is a Sitcom
May 10, 2017 by Tari Jewett in category Charmed Writer by Tari Lynn Jewett, Writing tagged as #amwriting, boys, Charmed Writer, Family, regrets, scripts, Tari Lynn Jewett, writing
Hunky Hubby with tools
Small mobs of kids surrounded our garage every Halloween when my husband carved pumpkins, not because he was especially artistic, but because he used a sawzall to carve them, and pumpkin insides and seeds sprayed everywhere while he worked. Our sprinkler system had “more power”, and when my mixer broke while I was making a birthday cake, Hunky Hubby came to the rescue by inserting a mixer beater into his electric drill. For years our three boys, took turns hiding a large plastic rat…in the dryer, in the pantry, wherever they thought it was most likely to scare me. If I left my phone unattended they would change their brother’s names on my contact list to things like ‘Ugly’ and ‘Creep’ and their own names to things like ‘Mom’s Favorite’ or ‘The Very Best Son’.
If this sounds like a season of Home Improvement, I thought so too. Hunky Hubby and the boys would prefer to eat meat off the grill and watch Attack of the Killer Tomatoes, while I wanted to see manners at the table and watch The Sound of Music. I could have written several seasons without making anything up.
In fact, of all my writing regrets, I most regret not writing an episode of Home Improvement and submitting it before the show ended.
So what is your biggest writing regret? Do you have one? Have you ever felt like your life was a sitcom, or tv drama and wanted to write a script?
The boys today with Grandma
1950s Life & Times of the Rich and Famous in Los Angeles
May 3, 2017 by Janet Elizabeth Lynn and Will Zeilinger in category Partners in Crime by Janet Elizabeth Lynn & Will Zeilinger, Writing tagged as 1950s, hard-boiled mysteries, history, Hollywood, The Skylar Drake Murder Mystery Series
While researching the 1950s, we came across memoirs of Los Angeles. Since our Private Eye character, Skylar Drake, moonlights as a stuntman for the movie industry, the Hollywood scene during that time is an intricate part of each book.
The regular family life of the rich and famous was not at all typical of everyday life. In fact, it was pretty exhausting! The executives were in constant fear of making the wrong decisions and losing their position (lots of backbiting). There were endless days of being “on” for the public. They were forever giving lunches, dinners, and cocktail parties at their homes for celebrities or visiting dignitaries. Their dinners were lavish and beautiful, as were their homes. Entertaining was constant with little private time.
The regular family life of the rich and famous was not at all typical of everyday life. In fact, it was pretty exhaustin
g! The executives were in constant fear of making the wrong decisions and losing their position (lots of backbiting). There were endless days of being “on” for the public. They were forever giving lunches, dinners and cocktail parties at their homes for celebrities or visiting dignitaries. Their dinners were lavish and beautiful, as well as their homes. Entertaining was constant with little private time.
I found stories of lunch with Barbara Hutton (heiress of the Woolworth’s chain) at the lavish garden of Merle Oberon, or a candle light dinner at the home of Edie Goetz, (daughter of Louis B. Mayer, co-founder of MGM.) And don’t forget entertaining royalty, moguls, and titans of the day. You couldn’t just throw hamburgers on the BBQ, 
whip up a potato salad and lounge by the pool!Tent parties in which the pool was covered to create a dance floor were a regular Saturday night event in Hollywood and Beverly Hills. On Sundays,
Tent parties in which the pool was covered to create a dance floor were a regular Saturday night event in Hollywood and Beverly Hills. On Sundays, church was not like your typical worship services. The Church of the Good Shepherd in Beverly Hills was nicknamed Our Lady of the Cadillacs du
e to the expensive cars that filled the parking lot for 10 am Mass.
Incorporating Skylar Drake’s assigned visits by his agent or the studio or working security into the stories has been fun. We’ve enjoyed dressing the characters, describing the gardens and homes, and the food served by the rich and famous of Los Angeles, 1950s.
Janet Elizabeth Lyn
My husband, Will Zeilinger and I, co-write the Skylar Drake Murder Mystery series. These hard-boiled tales are based in old Hollywood of 1955. Our third book in the series, Desert Ice, was released in January of this year.
www.janetelizabethlynnauthor.com
http://www.willzeilingerauthor.com
www.themarriedauthors.blogspot.com
2 0 Read moreA Harvest of Friends
April 27, 2017 by A Slice of Orange in category Things That Make Me Go Mmmrrh . . . by Geralyn Corcillo, Writing tagged as delight, friends. stories, joy, romantic comedy
Oh, what fun! It has been ages since I’ve written a blog on A Slice of Orange, but I could not pass up the opportunity to get in on this wonderful site’s relaunch. Allow me to introduce myself. I am Geralyn Corcillo and I write romantic comedy about women who try not to trip as they valiantly march to their own bongo beat. I write to amuse and delight readers, and in this column, I will write about what makes me happy – what in entertainment, literature, and life makes me go mmmrrh and fuels my zany fires. What makes me curl my toes in squeeful delight and what makes me well up with tears of utterly verklempt happiness and what makes me laugh my head off.
For instance, one day a few months ago as I was switching channels, I happened across the very first episode of Little House on the Prairie, titled “A Harvest of Friends,” which originally aired in 1974. The Ingalls family had just moved to Walnut Grove, and no one in town would take a chance on an unknown farmer and give him the seed he could not pay for until he harvested his crop in the fall. No one, that is, except O’Neil, the hard-nosed, flinty merchant, who trades seed for Pa agreeing to stack bags of grain when it arrives in two days. If Pa does not stack the grain by midnight of the day it arrives, O’Neil will take his team of plow horses, and thus his livelihood as a farmer. And then the day before the grain arrives, Pa falls out of a tree and breaks his arm and some ribs. And O’Neil will not give Pa an extension on the deal. So Pa stalks into town, broken arm and ribs, and starts to stack the grain. Concerned for their Pa’s health and safety, little Mary and Laura follow him but stay hidden. Pa stacks grain until the pain becomes too much to bear and he passes out, most of the grain still unstacked. So little Mary and Laura run from their hiding spot and try to stack the huge bags of grain themselves. O’Neil smugly watches all, not lifting a finger to help.
And then it happens.
Men from all over the town – the bank, the doctor’s office, the mill, the church, the General Store – walk into the street, all heading toward O’Neil’s, where Pa is passed out and the girls struggle to move just one huge bag of grain. The men form a line and all the grain is stacked within the hour. O’Neil’s name is now mud in the town and Pa gets to keep the seed and horses. And all the townsmen ask in return is that they can use Pa’s land to hold the church picnic on Sunday.
Gosh, I started crying like you wouldn’t believe as all the men, this harvest of friends, moved as one toward O’Neil’s in common purpose to come to the aid of a fallen man and his little girls.
Well, that is what I hope A Slice of Orange turns out to be – A Harvest of Friends, all moving in unison toward the common purpose of loving good stories – whether we are reading them, creating them, marketing them, or all of the above. I write to make readers happy, and I adore finding pockets in life where generosity, delight, and laughter abound. In my writing, I try to capture the essence of such pockets of beauty and sparkle in everyday life. A Slice of Orange is one such pocket.
Watch for my column on the 27th of every month and drop by to see my daily posts on Facebook and Twitter. Wherever I am posting, please feel free to comment away and we can dish – I love to connect with other lovers of good stories! And you can find all of my books on Amazon.
First and foremost, Geralyn Corcillo loves reader reviews! In other news…When she was a kid in Scranton, Pennsylvania, Geralyn Vivian Ruane Corcillo dreamed of one day becoming the superhero Dyna Girl. So, she did her best and grew up to constantly pick up litter and rescue animals. At home, she loves watching black & white movies, British mysteries, and the NY Giants. Corcillo lives in a drafty old house in Hollywood with her husband Ron, a guy who’s even cooler than Kip Dynamite.
20 1 Read moreFeatured Books
MIGUEL’S BRAVE KNIGHT
Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra finds refuge from his difficult childhood by imagining the adventures of a brave but clumsy knight.
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