Day 7 ~ Featuring Blind Trust & Announcing 3 More Recipients

Posted on: June 7, 2022June 7, 2022 by Sandra Orchard

Blind Trust is the second award-winning instalment in the Port Aster Secrets series from Revell Publishing.

Check out my Day 5 post for more about the series.

Catnip Hair Rinse & Reducing Grey

Funnily, a bonus feature connected to my research for this series has one of the highest number of search hits on my website, second only to “How to Escape Jury Duty.” 🙂

It’s a recipe for Catnip Hair Rinse. Our yard has an abundance of catnip. I dry it for a sleepy-time tea, although I have tried the rinse.

One of the tips I include in the recipe is that while steeping your catnip, to add an 1/8^th cup each of rosemary and sage per cup of water if you wish to reduce grey hair. Despite anticipating the arrival of my 12th grandchild this summer, I haven’t developed more than the odd strand of grey just yet. So…I can’t speak to how well that works, but I’d love to hear how it works for you, if you try it! 🙂

Three More Recipients of Complimentary Books

From my visit to the Suspense Sisters blog: Lucy R will receive a copy of Deadly Devotion

From my newsletter subscribers: Carolyn Coo… will receive Hidden Threats from the Sweet Intrigue collection

From those who have commented so far on my blog: Rochelle receives a copy of Critical Condition.

P.S. I will be drawing from amongst all the blog comments another time or two before the 25th

Writers & Aspiring Writers, Join me on Seekerville Today

I’ll be giving away a book while I’m there this week, too.

For Everyone:

Download Deadly Devotion for Free:

Buy Identity Withheld for only $1.99:

Enter a Rafflecopter Giveaway for 1 of 10 copies of Boughs of Folly

A Vacation-Inspired Giveaway

Posted on: May 17, 2015May 18, 2015 by Sandra Orchard

Last week, I went on a mother-daughter vacation

to visit my super-cool writing friend Lisa Belcastro on Martha’s Vineyard.

mv-beach picnic — lobster picnic on beach at sunset

And what a week!

Fans of the movie, Sabrina, with Harrison Ford, will know this building as the one his character buys for a homeless shelter. It's really a bank. — Fans of the movie Sabrina, with Harrison Ford, will know this building as the one his character buys for a homeless shelter. It’s really a bank.

We’re all writers so we had lots of fun talking writing, even joined Lisa’s crit group one evening. Inspiring stuff.

We also soaked in the beauty of God’s creation.

mv-menemshe — We hiked to the island’s highest point–a whopping 300 feet above sea level.

mv-martha's vineyard beach — We walked the beach.

mv-martha's vineyard beach 2 — Walked many beaches. Each one was a little different.

Lisa was a wonderful tour guide, offering lots of fun tidbits about the island, as she does in her Vineyard based books. Even showed us the best place to hunt for sea glass. I found a red piece!

mv-martha's vineyard lighthouse — We even saw the crew working at moving a lighthouse in from the rapidly eroding cliff’s edge.

And if all that wasn’t enough to refill my creative well and give my writing a much-needed kick start, I also received lots of exciting news last week.

In addition to finaling in The Word Awards, Blind Trust is a finalist in the Selah Awards for Mystery/Suspense. And Identity Withheld is a finalist in the Holt Medallion for the short inspirational category, and…is a finalist in the National Readers’ Choice Awards for contemporary series suspense/adventure.

Lisa also received news that she’s a double finalist in the Selahs and a finalist in the Booksellers’ Best Award

The president, who vacations on Martha’s Vineyard, sent over a bottle of champagne for our impromptu celebration…

Okay, just kidding. I’m a fiction writer, remember? But…the bottle does have the president’s seal on it! Lisa clearly knows people (but you didn’t hear that from me, shh)

To celebrate, I’m giving away books!

Three copies of Identity Withheld to three lucky winners.

And a set (on kindle) of Lisa’s Shenandoah inspirational romances to one more lucky winner.

Monday Update: I just learned that my July release, Emergency Reunion, was a Top Pick at RT Book Reviews, and my box has arrived, so…I’m adding a copy of it to the giveaway, too. 😀

Your Turn: Tell me about your most inspiring vacation (in the comments below) for a chance to win. (If you win and already have Identity Withheld, I can gift it to a friend from you.) Names will be drawn randomly from all entries received by midnight May 23rd. EDT

P.S. Desperate Measures has been spotted in bookstores! And…is already shipping from some online stores! It’s also still up for a Goodreads Giveaway. And Deadly Devotion is still free in Ebook.

Desperate Measures is Almost Here!

Posted on: May 1, 2015April 8, 2015 by Sandra Orchard

Have you been enjoying the Port Aster Secrets series?

If so, you have only one more month to wait to read the final installment.

But…if per chance, you haven’t checked out this series yet, you now have the opportunity to try the first award-winning book, Deadly Devotion, for FREE in Ebook format from now until the end of summer.

Check it out at your favorite retailer and please, tell your friends!

Your Turn: For those who’ve been following the series, how do you hope it will end? (Shh, if you can tell me without any spoilers for those who haven’t started) 😉

Big Thank You & Giveaways This Week

Posted on: July 30, 2014July 30, 2014 by Sandra Orchard

Thank you so much to all who voted for

Blind Trust

at Clash of the Titles.

It won!

To continue the celebration…

Visit me this week at

International Christian Fiction Writers

and leave a comment for a chance to win an E copy of Blind Trust (or other Orchard title of your choice)

and

for a second opportunity…

on Friday, August 1st hop over to

Suspense Sisters

Giveaway this Week

Posted on: July 17, 2014July 17, 2014 by Sandra Orchard

Visit me this week at

MBT Ponderers

and leave a comment for a chance to win a paperback copy of Blind Trust 😉

One Day Only Super Sale

Posted on: July 15, 2014July 15, 2014 by Sandra Orchard

Ebook Lovers here’s your chance to get Blind Trust for a steal!

And…it’s a ~~cheap~~ great way to gift Aunt Martha who got that Ebook reader for Christmas a great book. 😉

It’s $2.99 or less wherever Ebooks are sold.

Here are some of the most popular links:

Amazon US
Amazon Canada

Amazon UK (£1.44 Kindle)

Amazon Australia
CBD.com (Epub version) only $2.39!
Nook
Itunes

If you enjoyed Blind Trust, I’d love it if you’d tell your friends about this great deal! There are share buttons below to make it super easy. Of course…I highly recommend reading Deadly Devotion first. 🙂

Blind Trust Blog Tour & Special Deals

Posted on: June 2, 2014June 6, 2014 by Sandra Orchard

Blind Trust is now shipping and I was tickled to already hear from a few readers over the weekend! I’m very excited to be visiting several blogs this week to celebrate the release. Oh, and check out the new cover I found online!

The image on the right is for the large print, hard cover edition that will release in August from Center Point Publishing. Cool, eh?

I’d love for you to pop by one of my blog stops for a visit!

My hero & I will be chatting about all sorts of things.

Today I’m at Trish Perry’s blog, answering questions about Blind Trust and life and if you leave a comment sometime this week, you’ll have a chance to win a copy.

This week, Detective Tom Parker will be answering questions at Margaret Daley’s blog.

Tuesday, I’ll be posting at the Craftie Ladies’ Blog on interesting factoids I learned while researching Blind Trust. 😉

And…here’s the special I learned about from my publisher over the weekend:

This week only, Deadly Devotion will be on sale in Ebook format at most retailers for only $2.99. I highly recommend reading it before Blind Trust, which has a spoiler for the mystery in it.

And… the Ebook format for Blind Trust will be on sale until July 14th for the special price of $6.99!

Happy Memorial Day Weekend & Another Giveaway

Posted on: May 24, 2014 by Sandra Orchard

I don’t live in the US, but any excuse for ~~taking a day off~~ a giveaway will do. 🙂

Well, that and because I’m up to my eyeballs preparing powerpoint slides for the classes I’m teaching at Write!Canada in a couple of weeks.

Actually…having waaaay too much fun picking fun pictures to liven up the lessons. Like this one on how to write romantic suspense:

He looks like a go-to kind of guy when you need to get out of a dangerous situation. The kind of guy who’d take a bullet for you, or…at least for the president. 😉

And if you happen to live near Southern Ontario and love to write, you can still register for Write!Canada.

Giveaway Opportunities for Blind Trust

Ending Sunday evening – http://jennifershirk.blogspot.ca/2014/05/fun-interview-and-giveaway.html

Ending May 30th in AM – http://elainestock.blogspot.ca/2014/05/sandra-orchard-master-at-intrigue.html

Ending June 17th – for Goodreads members – https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/92614-blind-trust

How to Make Money

Wow, did that get your attention? 😆

Yes, that’s what Canadian money looks like, now, courtesy of the Bank of Canada website. This past week I had fun blogging at International Christian Fiction Writers about what I learned about counterfeiting while researching for Blind Trust.

For example…

Did you know that new photocopiers and printers are designed to lock up if you attempt to copy money?

A number of years ago a kid in Canada did it successfully and passed the bills off at school (before our money went plastic), but one of the blog readers confirmed that yes, photocopiers freeze up. She’d tried copying a bill for a play prop…or so she claimed. 😉

Intrigued?

You can read the whole post here: http://internationalchristianfictionwriters.blogspot.ca/2014/05/on-making-money-more.html

Have a great week!

Your Turn:

Could you help me with my class prep for a Fictions Basics? If you’re a writer, what was the one element of craft you learned that leapfrogged your writing forward? For everyone…what makes you put a book down and not pick it up again? Thanks so much!