Annie’s is celebrating Black Friday this weekend by offering an additional 25% off your purchase.
Use coupon code 25OFFBF at checkout, to get the hardcover Jingle Bell Mysteries set for only $7.50 USD + shipping.
Click the image or visit: https://www.anniescatalog.com/detail.html?prod_id=168648&cat_id=467
This is Rusty, the self-proclaimed hero of Identity Withheld. “After all,” he says, with a tongue-lolling grin, “Kara is always hugging me.”
Of course, our firefighter hero (my FBI agent’s brother), did suspect the heroine of being an arsonist upon first sight, whereas, Rusty adored her at first sight. 🙂
Another fun fact: the heroine, Kara Grant, is named after one of my newsletter subscribers!
WITNESS IN HIDING
After exposing an illegal adoption ring, newly named “Kara Grant” is promised safety in Witness Protection. But someone has found her—and wants her dead. If only she could trust the handsome firefighter who catches her fleeing from a suspicious fire. Jake Steele seems to think she’s guilty of burning her own home. But how can she tell him who she really is and what she’s been through without bringing danger to the widowed father’s door? Yet with the criminals fast closing in, taking such a risk might be her only chance at survival. Because the price she’ll pay for her silence could be her life.
The Special price of $1.99 on this multi-award-winning novel is good until 6/14/2022.
Your Turn: Do you like firefighter heroes? What about animals in novels?
The Niagara Children’s Centre is hosting their Superhero Run as an online fundraising auction, and signed novels from two of my mystery series will soon be open for bids. [Links now updated!]
The Niagara Children’s Centre provides rehabilitation and support services to children and youth with physical, developmental and communicative delays and disabilities. This is where my grandson honed his walking skills after receiving his first prosthetic leg.
Please be aware that most items will need to be picked up by successful bidders at the centre. The auction runs from August 9th, 2021 – October 4th, 2021. My books go on the auction block at 2 pm EDT on August 9th.
Visit: https://www.32auctions.com/SuperheroRun2021
Items include gift cards, various services (such as salon and massage), toys, small appliances and much more.
Click on the picture above or here: to go straight to the action!
Click on the picture above or here: to go straight to the action!
Visit their website to learn more about what the services the Niagara Children’s Centre has to offer.
Write Canada will be online in 2021 and easier than ever to fit into your schedule and budget.
The conference will span two separate two-week sessions (Aug 7-21 and Sept 11-25) with registrants able to join the classes live via Zoom or watch the recorded sessions anytime before the end of October.
The cost is $200.
I am! I’m super excited to be teaching a writing intensive this year entitled: Essential Techniques to Master the Craft of Writing Compelling Fiction.
To help you take your writing to the next level. By incorporating memorable visuals and examples, the lessons will equip participants to analyze their writing and transform it into tight, compelling prose. They will learn the difference between story goals, character goals and scene goals, and the importance of establishing them. They will learn how to ensure their scenes propel their story forward and learn tricks and tips to evoke emotions in their readers.
We will also explore how to pace and storyboard a story. And participants will learn which must-have elements to include in their opening scene to hook acquiring editors, agents and readers alike.
The first session of each intensive is open to all registrants, however, to join the follow-up sessions, you must apply to participate in the intensive. (an additional fee applies) Before the second session, you will submit a selection from your work-in-progress for written feedback from myself and other participants. In the followup sessions, I will review these submissions and use them to illustrate additional teaching points.
My opening session (viewable by all attendees) will be the first night of the conference at 7 pm on August 7th.
I look forward to seeing many of you there!
For additional information about the conference and to register, visit: https://writecanada.org
Ever notice how challenges have a way of piling up on you?
Being a writer who exploits such scenarios on a continual basis, I’ve grown to take a philosophical approach to the twisters that want to wreak havoc on my plans.
This month the twisters came mostly in the form of helping care for sick grandchildren and trying not to succumb myself. So when my edits landed in my inbox and the children all seemed to be on the mend, I envisioned an entire uninterrupted day of work.
😆 😆 😆
A stray dog, with no collar, had another idea. The adorable, lovable and unbelievably needy chocolate brown lab showed up on my doorstep at 7 am. I fed her and tied her up . . . three times. She looked to be about 8 months old, but clearly had already learned the fine art of being an escape artist.
Of course, she didn’t run away each time she escaped. No . . . She came and threw herself at my door and begged to be let in. I think my dog thought Christmas had come early in the form of a playmate, but I wasn’t about to let the kamikaze canine inside.
Visions of Christmas tree ornaments spewing in every direction at the wag of the dog’s tail filled my head!
So . . . I did what any responsible person would do. I woke my nearest neighbours to ask if they knew who she belonged to. 😳
They didn’t. And of course, the local animal shelter didn’t open until 10.
Yup, my FULL day of working on edits was quickly spiralling out of control.
The title of said novel, YULE BE SORRY, was clearly an omen.
But alas, eventually the friendly lass was carted off to await her owner’s call and I was able to sit down to my edits.
The whole episode reminded me of Rusty, the heroic goldendoodle in Identity Withheld.
Have you read that story? Do you remember Rusty?
For fun, I thought I’d share his interview once more. Identity Withheld takes place at Christmas time, so if you haven’t read it yet, it’d be a fun one to pick up for an edge-of-your-seat read on a blustery day.
Sandra: Rusty, could you start by telling us about yourself?
Sandra: I hear you took a shine to Kara Grant, too, when Jake brought her to his parents after her house burned down and she had nowhere to go.
Sandra: Did Jake have a new respect for you after that, too?
Sandra: Absolutely. Is there anything else you’d like to tell us?
Rusty: I don’t want to give away the story, but everyone keeps calling Jake the hero, when I should get top billing. Kara fell in love with me the first time she laid eyes on me and… <glances from side to side and lowers his voice> if you read Identity Withheld, I’m sure you’ll agree that it wouldn’t be much of a story without me.
Me Again: I hope you enjoyed catching up with me. It has been awhile!
For those of you who aren’t on Facebook or who may have missed the post I made there. I’m proud to share that my grandson, who lost his leg in the lawn tractor accident a month before his third birthday, is this year’s War Amps Safety Ambassador.
If you’d like to see the commercial he did with a couple of Hamilton’s TiCats, you can find it here:
Crying Baby Image courtesy of imagerymajestic at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
If you haven’t met my plucky FBI art crime agent, Serena Jones, this month is your chance to read about her first adventure for free!
Almost every online retailer is on board, offering a legal free download of A Fool and His Monet by Sandra Orchard.
Here are links to some of the most popular retailers:
I’m afraid I’ve been quiet online for much of the summer. I have been enjoying cultivating my vegetable garden, well, four gardens plus a pumpkin patch to be exact. And I’ve been having tons of fun experimenting with new recipes, including making sourdough for the first time and fermenting some of this year’s bounty from the garden!
But in between reading “how to” articles and watching videos to hone these new skills, I have managed to do some reading. One of the books I most anticipated delving into was the next instalment in my friend Patricia Bradley’s Memphis Cold Case series. Although if you haven’t read the first books in this series, it does read well as a standalone. And . . . if you’re a longtime Elvis fan, you’re especially in for a treat!
Here’s the book blurb:
It’s Elvis Week in Memphis, and homicide Detective Rachel Sloan isn’t sure her day could get any stranger when aging Elvis impersonator Vic Vegas asks to see her. But when he produces a photo of her murdered mother with four Elvis impersonators–one of whom had also been murdered soon after the photo was taken–she’s forced to reevaluate. Is there some connection between the two unsolved cases? And could the recent break-in at Vic’s home be tied to his obsession with finding his friend’s killer?
When yet another person in the photo is murdered, Rachel suddenly has her hands full investigating three cases. Lieutenant Boone Callahan offers his help, but their checkered romantic past threatens to get in the way. Can they solve the cases before the murderer makes Rachel victim number four?
My Review:
Justice Betrayed is a keep-you-guessing romantic suspense that is light on the romance. Now, I have to say that I prefer it when authors keep the “bad guy” a mystery, even in a suspense, so I was a little disappointed to “meet” the bad guy in the prologue. Until . . .
I discovered I didn’t have a clue who the person actually was in the present!
I love being kept guessing and Pat provided enough possibilities to keep me on my toes. She also had some great secondary characters, including the heroine’s polar opposite grandmothers, as well as, a sweet, mentally challenged young woman whose adoration of Elvis inadvertently entangles her in the mystery, which takes place during Elvis week in Memphis and begins with the death of a tribute artist.
I really enjoyed this book. Ask for it at your favourite bookstore or find it all the major online retailers.
And . . . if you’re looking for Ebooks to stock your kindle, iPad, tablet or phone these last few weeks of summer…
A Fool and His Monet and Another Day Another Dali are both only $1.99 each through to the end of the month. You can find them on google play for your android devices, iTunes for your Apple devices, Nook, Kobo, and Amazon for kindle.
As you may have deduced from my sparse number of blog posts of late, life’s kept me busy. A happy busy.
I’m grateful for Facebook that allows me to regularly connect with many of you. I do so love our interactions there.
That said, the past couple of weeks, I’ve noticed a lot of posts around the blogosphere about a
“word”
each post’s author has chosen to focus on for the year and felt inspired to chime in. I’ve contemplated choosing a “word” a few times, but I’ve never made a conscientious effort to follow through.
Last year, for example, I knew I needed to focus on finding balance (that is to say figuring out how to be a writer and have a life too). I did take an extended vacation with my husband and prioritized spending time with my grandchildren and rediscovered crocheting and amazingly, still managed to finish three manuscripts!
We won’t mention how few blog posts I wrote here. 😳
‘Cause, hey, this weekend, I even FINALLY got around to finishing painting the very large rec room I’d started before my grandson’s accident two years ago!!!
As I was prepping the very old plaster walls (no easy task), the word perspective kept coming to mind.
And wow, who knew how many cobwebs hide in the corners under those low tables?
Remember . . . last year’s word was balance, so dusting wasn’t a priority. 😀
The cobwebs got me thinking about the trouble I could get my newest heroine into and how I could shake up the story simply by changing her perspective of the situation.
Then came the leaking window. 😕
The cracked plaster beneath the corner should’ve been my first clue. But the fact my plaster repair job refused to cure was the clincher.
So . . . I tore off trim and (reminisced about how much I missed renovating) 😉
Getting into the walls gave me a whole new inside-out perspective.
(Unfortunately not one that, as of yet, has revealed the source of the window leak.)
But it did entrench the compulsion to think more on perspective this year.
The word actually goes hand in glove with balance, since it means “true understanding of the relative importance of things,” as well as, “a particular attitude towards or way of regarding something.”
And . . . bonus . . . it can be a writer’s best friend in crafting stories!
Your Turn: Have you ever chosen a word to focus on for a year? If so, would you share how it worked for you.
Cobweb Image courtesy of Pansa at FreeDigitalPhotos.net
Please join me at the International Christian Fiction Writers blog today, where I am interviewing Canadian author Stacey Weeks, who also happens to be one of my treasured brainstormers (Nate’s champion in the Serena Jones series.) 😛
And she’s giving away a copy of her debut romance The Builder’s Reluctant Bride to one randomly selected commenter.
And the randomly selected winners from last week’s blog giveaway (using random.org) are: Pirrko, Lynda, Faith and a bonus winner, Jody. Ladies, please look for my emails in your inboxes.
Have a wonderful week everyone!
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