It's publication day for three of my fellow Harper Impulse Authors!

The Songbird & the Soldier  

by Wendy Lou Jones  Facebook   Goodreads   Harper Impulse

Where do you turn when the first casualty of love is the truth?

Sometimes it's when you least expect it that something wonderful happens, but for Andy Garrington the timing couldn't have been worse. Being sent half way round the world to Afghanistan, Andy is prepared for a fight, but what he doesn't expect is the most important battle of his life to carry on at home. For Samantha Litton, running into her childhood crush at the pub one evening seems like good fortune. But when he is called away to war and she is left behind, things don't seem quite so clear and Sam has to determine who is telling her the truth and who is playing her for a fool, when all seems fair in love and war.

Do You Remember? 
by Mandy Baggot   Website   Goodreads   Harper Impulse

First Love. First Loss. Last chance?

2005 was the most traumatic year of Emma Barron’s life. It was the year her mother died and the year she met Guy Duval. Eight years on, she’s an English teacher with a doting boyfriend and a young son. Life’s been hard but now it’s comfortable. She’s settled and content…so why would she risk it all for another chance with the man that broke her heart?

Guy’s an international renowned footballer newly signed to a top UK team. But behind the confident facade is a man determined to drown the horrors from his childhood with fame, success and money.

Unable to confide in her best friend, Ally, Emma tries to hold her life together as her heart is pulled apart. Did she turn her back on love too soon?

Neither of them know what really happened on 5 September 2005 and as events are slowly

revealed can anyone cope with the truth?

On the Scent
by Angela Campbell Website   Goodreads   Harper Impulse

Hannah Dawson has a big problem: she’s just become the unexpected owner of a snarky cat, a loveable but not-so-bright dog… and their $10 million fortune!

Which would be awesome if it hadn’t made her the target of every wacko in the metro Atlanta area. Now Hannah and her famous pets need protecting and there’s only one man who can help them…

Enter Zachary Collins: ex-TV star of ‘The Psychic Detective’ and street-wise private investigator – all 6 foot blue-eyed gorgeousness!

Only Zach’s got secrets of his own – not least that he finds his new client irresistibly hot. The more time he spends keeping Hannah out of harm’s way, the more he’s tempted to give in to the attraction… even if it means breaking all his own rules.

Book one in an exciting new trilogy from the witty, wonderful world of Angela Campbell!

Happy Publication Day Ladies!!!

I got the EMAIL!

I dreamt of becoming a published author since I was a child but life put up obstacles, some unavoidable, some self created.  In 2006 when we moved for my husband’s new job, I decided to take steps to make my dream a reality.  I committed to writing daily and I joined an online community of writers. 

That community kept me going through the at times painful process of improving my skills, health issues, rejections, revision requests and more rejections.  I’ve no doubt that without my fellow writer’s encouragement and support I would not have this news to share.  

In September 2012, I entered the SYTYCW contest.  In November, I learned I didn’t final and received a rejection for a different manuscript.  I took the feedback from the rejection and started to revise my contest entry, intending to submit it in the best possible form.  The next week I unexpectedly got a request for the full manuscript.  I was over the moon. 

Some family issues demanded my attention.  I requested time from the lovely requesting editor who graciously told me to take as much time as I needed.  In March 2013 when I was ready to submit, I learned that editor had moved on.  I submitted the story anyway and it was rejected, a form rejection which stung badly.  

I pressed on and submitted my work to a number of publishers.  Then I received a life-changing piece of advice - track down the editor that had seen the potential in my story (Thank you Bronwyn!).  I discovered Charlotte Ledger had joined Harper Impulse and sent her my story.  I obsessively checked my email and in the following weeks, I received a number of ‘we like your voice but your story doesn't fit our line’ rejections from other publishers.

One very long Friday I spent hours on the road and at the hospital for pituitary testing.  (I’m fine but you can follow this link if you're curious.)  By the time I got home, I was tired and cranky and not in the mood to read another rejection so, I avoided checking my email until I was almost ready for bed.   

My mouth fell open when I saw Charlotte had sent me an email that morning.  I stared at it for several minutes before I managed to click open.  She remembered me.  She liked my story.  She wanted to- OH.  My.  She wanted to call me.  Editors don’t call to reject you.  They call for...  OH.  My. 

I must have made some strangled sound by that time because my husband inquired if I was okay.  I couldn't talk.  I turned my laptop, pointed at the email. 

He read it.  “Isn’t that good?”  

“Ah...  YAH!”

      

“Well then reply to her.”

I stared at him, mute, awhile then finally turned my laptop back.  I spent several nerve-racking moments composing an email I hoped wouldn't sound ridiculous.  When finished I took a deep breath and clicked send.  It was then I noticed Charlotte’s second email.  (Note to self always check all messages before responding to one.) 

As I read this one, I couldn’t make a sound.  I reached out, tugged on my husband’s arm to get his attention, nodded to the screen.  Charlotte wanted to buy my manuscript!  Harper Impulse offered me a contract!

She offered the official CALL but with her in the UK and me in the USA, emails work best for me, and those left me so twitterpated that I couldn't have talked had we worked out the time difference.

I was asked to keep this quiet until they officially announced me.  It was so hard after the first shock passed not to shout it to the world.  However today it’s official, here's my announcement , and I’m so relieved that I’m finally able to share this with everyone!

Harper Impulse contracted me for two books plus a novella in Men of Fir Mountain series, and the first book, The Outlaw of Cedar Ridge, excerpt here will be released August 15!  I can see listed on Amazon already for preorder.  OH. MY.  I keep closing the browser, opening a new tab and then searching Amazon again to see if it comes up againg.  I’m having a hard time believing it’s really happening. 

Everyone who helped, critiqued, supported and encouraged me toward achieving my dream I cannot say thank you enough.

They called me a tomboy.

Who?

Everyone I knew growing up.

Why?

Because I liked making up adventures.  Barbies didn't try on outifts, they went out in the woods on spy missions.  Dolls didn't have tea parties, they were aliens sent to help humankind or destroy the cosmos depending on my mood.  I didn't just ride bikes with my sister, we were bionic women out to save the world.

Eventually I grew up but the desire for made up adventures never faded.  In my teens I developed a fondness for my mother's romance novels.  However princes and sheiks, I'm sorry, didn't intrigue me so I sought out other heroes and soon, of course, I had to create my own take on romantic adventures.  Falling in love risks your heart, daring to do so takes courage.  The journey that a romance can travel fascinates me still especially when I flavor the story with a pinch of drama, a dash of danger and  a handsome cowboy.

One mystery my imagination has never delved into is my sister's affection for shoes.  I just don't get it.  Maybe someday she could write me a story I can relate to like The Cowgirl wore Prada and I'll finally -  nah.

I'll always be a tomboy who wears my one pair of tennis shoes until they fall apart. 

History plus rampant imagination = stories

I've known people who never look back and others who love the dry facts and figures of history.  I love the sense of it, the knowledge that throughout time people were like we are now, yet the setting has changed.  I'm enamored of the tidbits of personal stories passed down through our family.

Once, as we spoke of family history, my Grandma Way told me she remembered her grandmother telling her of traveling in a covered wagon.  My young adult mind was amazed.  I thought she'd then spin a tale as exciting as the movies I'd seen.  She didn't.  In fact that was all she had to say.  For her grandmother it was a simple statement of fact.  That was how they'd traveled.  I wonder will my great great grandchild be amazed I traveled by car?

My maternal grandfather, Elmer Edwin Way, was born in 1894.

  

{He looks quite handsome in his WW1 uniform doesn't he?}

Anyway knowing his birth date altered my paradigm. 

Suddenly real people lived, loved and died in the 1800's.

Of course my imagination kicked in, spun possible stories.

All my historical romances so far,

 The Outlaw of Cedar Ridge

 Seducing the Sheriff 

plus the one I'm working on now 

are set in 1891.