Happy Monday

Last week I worked with a couple of other authors from the Wild Rose Press to set up a critique group on line. We named it The Rose Trellis and created it as a yahoo group. It has been a lot of fun, and if any of you are interested in participating email Tricia Ballad at tricia @ triciaballad.com and put Looking for Critique Partner in the subject line.

Today I was the guest speaker at a women’s connections luncheon, not only was it a lot of fun, but I sold several copies of Mail Order Husband.

A Wife for Big John is still doing well on the lists, it has hit number one on a couple of the Wild Rose Press lists at the different sites, and has been in the top ten on several others. I look forward to getting copies of this book in print, especially for family members. (August seems a long way off, but it also sounds warm! Yes, I think I'm getting cabin fever or the winter blues.)

I came down with the ‘crud’ this weekend, the aches, pains, and headache that even kept me from going to my writers group. I just couldn't face an hour long drive. But the upside is I read two books from my “to be read pile” while snuggled under the covers. They were both by Linda Lael Miller, and I enjoyed both of them very much.

Oh, and last week, my mom found a copy of Mail Order Husband at the library in a neighboring town, she of course had to tell the librarian the whole, “my daughter wrote this” tale. (Thanks, Mom!) And then two days later the director of our local Chamber of Commerce called to tell me she’d checked my book out from the library.

I hope you all have a wonderful week. I’m taking Thursday off to babysit my granddaughter and really looking forward to it!

Another Contract!

I had a wonderful weekend- I signed and returned another contract to the Wild Rose Press! An Unbelievable Journey is a short story, (26,000 words) for the Cactus Line and will only be available in e-book. I must admit every contract is just as exciting as the first one. This story is a time travel historical, and was a lot of fun to write.

Here is the draft blurb (thanks to my wonderful editor):

Sierra Masters isn’t shocked by being transported 125 years into the past- it simply proves aliens do exist. What shocks her is how easily she adjusts to living in 1883, and how quickly she falls in love with the handsome hunk Jesse Jones. Par for her life; she finally finds the man of her dreams, but will lose him in thirty days when the aliens return for her.

Jesse Jones is shocked by the girl he finds on the Nebraska prairie, she wears jewelry in her belly button, tries to shave her legs with his straight-edged razor, and insists an alien gang abducted her. He plans to wash his hands of her until a Shaman claims Sierra Masters is Jesse's woman from the future. Then, as she wiggles her way into his heart, he vows to find a way to make her stay in his time.

Other news: A Wife for Big John is doing well. It’s #1 on The Wild Rose Press Cactus Line best selling list, #3 on The Wild Rose Press Fictionwise best selling list, and has already been ranked on the Amazon Kindle list.

They finally hired someone else at work…it’s been a long six months by myself. I've helped set up a critique group for The Wild Rose Press, started working on this year's Big Lake Library fundraiser event, have my writer's group meeting this weekend, and next Monday I will be speaking at a Women’s Connections Luncheon. And of course I've been working on my next story.

Hope you all have a great week!

Five Hearts Review

Considering we spend 1/7 of our lives on Mondays (an often hated day), I have to say, this Monday became an extra special one for me.

Brenda Talley of The Romance Studio reviewed A Wife for Big John, and gave it FIVE HEARTS!

The marketing department at The Wild Rose Press sends new books out to several reviewers, and I must admit when I saw the email tonight containing my first review on this book, my stomach started to churn and my fingers began to tremble as I clicked on the review link. Once I read the review I insisted the TV be turned down (in the middle of Prison Break {gasp}) so I could read it aloud to my husband and son. Bless their hearts for putting up with me, and for being happy for me.

Ms. Talley says, "Through a compelling turn of events to the unbelievable ending, this author has written a great book which is bound to be a big hit. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants a stirring storyline. It’s a great book I was honored to read."

I think Valentine’s Day came a couple days early this year!

A Wife for Big John releases this Friday

A Wife for Big John will be released this Friday, February 8th, in e-book (the print version will be available in August). It will be offered for download purchase from several sites, including www.thewildrosepress.com and www.fictionwise.com.

This book was especially fun to write, and I learned so much about the early logging industry during the process. Of course the story includes a reference or two to the world’s most famous Lumberjack, Paul Bunyan.

Set in northern Minnesota in the 1890’s, A Wife for Big John, is a sweet love story about Dani Jones, who wrangles a job as a logging camp cook, and Big John Thompson, who is flabbergasted to learn the cook he hired for the lumberjacks is a slip of a girl. When Miss Jones decides he needs a wife and sets out to find him one, John’s life is turned upside down.

The book is dedicated to my father, who worked in logging camps as a young man, and provided our family with unending tales of his life.