All Things Returned Blog Tour

I'm taking the latest installment of  Anton and Lenora on tour!The lovely Krista Ames at Bridging the Gap has extended the tour, so there'll be lots of opportunities to join me at some of the stops along the way for fun and prizes.

April 14-25

 14  Melissa Keir 

 15  A Passion for Romance

 16  Fiction Witches  

 17  Mary's Cup of Tea  

 18  Harlie's Books  

 18  Roast and Toast party

 19  Gemini Girls
 20  Brooke Blogs 

 21  Romancing the Pen Today
 21  Margo Bond Collins  

 22  Room with Books 

 23  Reviews by Crystal
 24  London Scribbles
 25  Fall into Reading Reviews 

All Things Returned is here!

All Things Returned releases today!

Anton and Lenora Boudreaux have settled into an idyllic cottage overlooking San Francisco Bay. They’ve left trouble behind them and found happily ever after—family, friends, and a business that has every expectation of being successful. Until the Willow sails into port. 

The captain of Willow, Jacob Lowell, is privy to secrets that threaten Lenora’s reputation and Anton’s life. When Anton sails to Seattle on a business enterprise, Jacob tries to blackmail Lenora, threatening to expose all he knows and forces her to make decisions that will test her love of Anton and her life with him.
All Things Returned is part three of the Anton and Lenora series

You can buy an e-copy of this novella at--

Amazon
Champagne Books
Barnes and Noble

Find more information on the book and on the series at Anton and Lenora

All Things Returned Playlist

I listen to music when I write to help bring me to the mood and tone of a book. Here's some of my playlist for All Things Returned. You can click on each selection to hear it on you tube.





All Things Returned Playlist

• After the Storm
• Mumford and Sons


• The Pirate of Penance
• Joni Mitchell


• I Gave You All
• Mumford and Sons


• Gold
• Steve Kazee (Once)
• 
  
• The Ghosts that we Knew
• Mumford and Sons

   An old acquaintance threatens more than simply ruining the happy life Anton and Lenora have built together.

All Things Returned releases on April 7. 

#BookTrailer: All Things Returned

All Things Returned, part three of the Anton and Lenora series, comes out on April 7.
Here's the brand new trailer for the book--

Anton and Lenora Boudreaux have settled into an idyllic cottage overlooking San Francisco Bay. They’ve left trouble behind them and found happily ever after—family, friends, and a business that has every expectation of being successful. Until the Willow sails into port.

The captain of Willow, Jacob Lowell, is privy to secrets that threaten Lenora’s reputation and Anton’s life. When Anton sails to Seattle on a business enterprise, Jacob tries to blackmail Lenora, threatening to expose all he knows and forcing her to make decisions that will test her love of Anton and her life with him.

#SaturdaySnippet Bell's Accident from Dancing in the White Room.

I've got a few more excerpts from Dancing in the White Room to Share. In this one, Mallory remembers what happened the first time Bell tried a descent down the West Rib of Denali. He's gone to try again, and Mallory is upset that he would.  This is the reason why--

It’s been five years, and I can still hear Roddie’s voice. “We had to grapple him down. Copter’s won’t go that high. We’re shipping him off to Anchorage.” When I didn’t say anything, he added, “Hope I didn’t worry you, love.”

After we hung up, I called the airlines and booked the first flight to Anchorage. They had Bell in a room by the time I got there. He looked like he’d been the loser in a prizefight. One eye was swollen shut, one hand bandaged because of frostbite on two fingers.

I was trying at the time to unhinge an awful fear, the awful thought of Bell as fallible, as vulnerable. It sat in my head, reinforced by tape and bandages and the blistering on his face. It sat there and I couldn’t shake it. It still sits there, this heavy pulsing gravitational thought.

When I think of Bell on Denali, this is the picture I get. Bell vulnerable. Bell fallible.

For more, please go check out Dancing in the White Room on my website

Dancing in the White Room Blog Tour

Just because the Winter Olympics are over doesn't mean you can't still enjoy Dancing in the White Room. I'm taking my ski-themed book on tour over the next few weeks and there'll be plenty about my characters and skiing. Hope you'll make a few of the stops with me.

Tour Schedule

Feb 25 - The Book Bug Review   

Feb 26  -  Reviews by Crystal

Feb 27 -  Fiction Witches

Feb 28 -  Fall into Reading Reviews

Feb 28- Angela Smith

Feb 28- Coffee Time Romance

March 1 -  Harlie's Books

March 2- A Passion for Romance

March 3  -  Toots Book Reviews

March 4- Romance Lives Forever

March 5  -  Gemini Girls

March 6  -  London Scribbles

March 6 -  That Girl Reads 

March 7- Lusty Penguin Review 

March 10 - Romantic Reads  

Dancing in the White Room--#Snippet The bedtime story. #TMPress

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Mallory and Bell's daughter, Emily, asks her mother for a bedtime story that Mallory would rather not tell--

Settled into bed, she asks for a story. “I want the story of Daddy and the mountain.”

This stops me for a minute. I have to bite my lip to keep from crying. “I don’t know that one, Em.”

“Yes you do. Daddy went to the big mountain,” she begins and she lies back expectantly.

I swallow hard. “Oh, that one,” I say and I pick up as best I can. “Daddy went to the big mountain.”

“And what’s the big mountain called?” she asks, though I know that she already knows the answer.

“It’s called Denali.” The name is loose and pliable on my tongue. It rolls like pebbles in my mouth.

Dancing in the White Room is available as an e-book. Buy your copy at TMP, Amazon, Barnes and Noble

White Room Snippets: Mallory and Bell #TMP

Part of Dancing in the White Room is told in back flash as Mallory recalls her life with Bell over the past seven years. This snippet is one of those scenes. In it, Mallory tells how she and Bell first met. She's a patrol woman, he's an extreme skier who's at Whiteface doing a demonstration ski.

The lunch crowd had long since filtered out of the cafeteria, choosing to stand in line for the lifts rather than hamburgers. I spooned up a bowl of chili from what looked like the dregs of the pot. Bell sat at a corner table with some other guys from the team. His blond hair curled around his shoulders, and I thought he was the best-looking guy I had ever laid eyes on.
I sat down a few tables from them. When I glanced up, I saw Bell watching me. I smiled and he smiled back, said something to his friends, picked up his tray and started walking in my direction. I figured he was done with lunch and about to leave. I wanted to check him out, but not stare, so I concentrated on my chili.
I didn’t look up again until he sat down across from me, at which point I was caught up in a kind of gummy, adolescent speechlessness. He had a half-eaten burger on his tray and a mound of fries slathered in ketchup.
“Chili any good?” he asked.
I stared at it as though it might give me an answer to his question. The crackers I’d been crumbling into the bowl were stuck to my palm. “I wouldn’t recommend it.” I brushed the crumbs from my hand.
“I was watching you ski,” he said. “You’re pretty phenomenal.” He smiled down at his burger.
“You’re not so bad yourself,” I answered, thinking the minute after I said it that this was possibly the stupidest thing that had ever dropped out of my mouth.
“You want to grab a beer or something later?”

Dancing in the White Room as an e-book at a wide variety of online bookstores including
TMP , Barnes and Noble and Amazon

White Room Snippets; Opening Lines

I was told, once, never to begin a book with the character waking up. That is, of course, exactly how I started Dancing in the White Room. Though Mallory is not waking so much as lying awake.

The alarm goes off at four-thirty, and I stare at the skylight of our sleeping loft. Bell

bangs on the clock to keep it from singing out again. I turn my back and nestle under the blankets. It’s almost March and it shouldn’t be as cold as it is—five below last night according to the thermometer propped outside the kitchen window. The temperature inside’s not much warmer. Bell would probably say I’m the one causing the freeze. We spent the past few days fighting. I did my share of pleading and cursing. I refused to help him pack his gear.

I wait for it, the hand that comes to my waist soon enough. Bell’s long fingers caress the contour and follow up under the curve of my breast.

“Mallory, you awake?”

I try to decide if I should answer him. I try to decide whether I want to have this conversation again, the one we’ve had off and on for the last six months, ever since he let slip he would be going back to Alaska to do the glisse on the West Rib of Denali.

I’ve never been good at pretense, so I turn to face him. His face is angular in the gray light of the room. His blond hair shuffles around his shoulders. He reaches over, his arms still warm from the down of our comforter, and kisses the arch of my shoulder.

“I’m going to miss that.” His voice is as inviting as a warm bath in the winter. It would be easy to fall into his warmth, easy to make this goodbye tender and inviting,the way our goodbyes usually are. Soft and intense, full of a kind of sweetness that can hold us,both of us, for a week or a month. A goodbye that promises a return, that says we’ll be here again, together.

Today, I push him away. I’m in no mood for sweet goodbyes. Last minute lovemaking won’t change his mind. And what I want is a mind change. What I want is a turnaround. I’m too stubborn to settle for less.

Dancing in the White Room is now available at TMP and Amazon

Dancing in the White Room #BookTrailer

Ready, set, go! Dancing in the White Room is being released on February 11th! Holy smokes, that's on Tuesday! Stay tuned for places to buy the book and lots more about this ski-based story. 

Next week, I'll also be doing a Valentine's Blog Hop with some other great authors. There'll be lots of fun and prizes, including a grand prize of an e-reader loaded down with books, books, books. I'll have more for you on that on Monday.

Meanwhile, in the countdown until Dancing in the White Room's debut, here's the trailer for the book-

Cover Reveal: Dancing in the White Room #TMP

Can I have a drum roll? The cover for Dancing in the White Room is here!

Getting cover art is one of the truly fun parts of being an author. It's like unwrapping a Christmas gift. I love the energy in this cover, by Kim Jacobs. It looks like the skier is going to ski right off the page, doesn't it? Perfect for this ski-themed book.
Dancing in the White Room will be available in mid-February, just in time for the Winter Olympics. It's set in ski country, but at heart, it's a love story.

Here's the book blurb--

 Dancing in the white room is slang for skiing or boarding in deep powder snow. The dancer is PD Bell, one of the best extreme skiers on the planet. Mallory Prescott, the woman who lives with him and loves him, is used to Bell’s exploits. A patrol woman at Whiteface Mountain near Lake Placid, New York, Mallory is no stranger to risk. But this time Bell is taking on the West Rib of Denali, highest and most dangerous mountain in North America. It’s a descent that has never been done, though it’s been tried. Five years ago, Bell had tried it. The attempt nearly killed him. Five years ago, he promised Mallory he wouldn’t try it again.     
    Over the six weeks in which he’s gone, Mallory begins to question her relationship with Bell. Does he really love her? Is he in it for the duration? What has loving him cost her?  Mallory’s life choices are thrown into stark relief when her daughter Emily takes a terrible fall. Together with her life-long friend Creech Creches, she must work her way through a maze of uncharted territory at a hospital miles from home.       
      Dancing in the White Room is the story of the love we keep, the price we pay for that love, and the forgiveness it takes to hold on to what is precious.

#Write-a-thin Check in. Week Four

Sometimes, it seems, the goal posts move. It's the final push in the month-long write-a-thin sponsored by the Women's Fiction Writer's association. I had set writing a first draft of Willow, part four of the Anton and Lenora historical novella series, as my goal for the month. I haven't, and won't make this goal. Primarily, because the book my publishers at TMP had scheduled for a March release is, with a little luck and work, being released early.
The book, Dancing in the White Room, is set in and around skiing. The publisher has hoped to release it to coincide with the Winter Olympics. Which is a fabulous idea. It means I've had to work hard to get my galley proofs (the final edit before the finish line) in a lot sooner than expected.
I've got the galleys done--and, if the fates allow, the book will come out mid-February.
I've got a fabulous new cover, which I can't wait to show off. I hope you'll stay tuned for exciting new updates on the project.
Sometimes, having the goal posts move is not such a bad thing, after all. 

Anton and Lenora--the journey continues today

Journey to adventure on the high sea.  To the Wind, book two of the Anton and Lenora series is now available. Anton and Lenora is a series of historical novellas set in the 1850s. To the Wind is told in the voice of Anton Boudreaux, Captain of the Sweet Lenora. It

In this sequel to Sweet Lenora, Anton and Lenora sail away from trouble in Rio de Janeiro only to encounter new problems. With only half a crew and a first mate that is hated and feared, they venture to San Francisco plagued by threats, mutiny,and illness. As they arrive at their destination, the ghosts of the past come back to haunt them and may prove to be the greatest menace of all. At each turn, the love they have forged is tested. Will it prevail?   

To the Wind is available for download at most e-book distributors including
 Champagne Books

and
 

PS The first book of the series, Sweet Lenora, can be purchased here:

#8Sunday #SundaySnips To the Wind is out tomorrow!

Hi and welcome to the Sunday eight, the blog hop where writers post eight sentences of a project. It's release week for me--the second novella of the Anton and Lenora series, To the Wind, is coming out on Monday.
To the Wind is  written in the hero, Anton's, voice. He's a sea captain, it's 1852, and the ship is sailing from Rio to San Francisco. Here are the first eight lines--




The world is a wicked place, full of lies and deceit. A man
must stand strong against the force of evil, lest he perish.
So  I thought before Lenora came into my life. She was an angel, appearing in a moment’s time upon the deck of Sweet Lenora, the ship named for her. The ship I commanded. She seemed so fragile a creature I knew I must protect her from the world. And protect her I vowed to do for all my days on this earth. I had locked my heart away in a box of iron, but Lenora broke the seal and set my poor heart free.











For more writing snippets, please visit Weekend Writing Warriors and Snippet Sunday

To The Wind:
In the sequel to Sweet Lenora, Anton and Lenora sail away from trouble in Rio de Janeiro only to encounter new problems. With only half a crew and a first mate that is hated and feared, they venture to San Francisco plagued by threats, mutiny,and illness. As they arrive at their destination, the ghosts of the past come back to haunt them and may prove to be the greatest menace of all. At each turn, the love they have forged is tested. Will it prevail?   

For more on  Sweet Lenora and To the Wind, please visit Anton and Lenora

#8Sunday #SnipSunday: Love Letters

Love letters is the second story in my short story trilogy, The Lilac Hour, which released just this week.
Here are the opening lines:


We buried Mama under the big oak next to Papa just as the lilacs came into bloom. It was  fitting, Mama being laid to rest at his side in the time of lilacs. I was so full of missing her that I felt my heart would splinter into a thousand tiny pieces, but I found comfort in the thought of  them together up there in the shade of those old trees, overlooking the bay. It tempered my grief ever so slightly, like a feather come to lodge in a dark place.
For the longest time, I would think it was her each time the kitchen door opened. I could see her carrying a bunch of lilacs. “Oh, that sweet smell,” she would say, “If only they could bottle it.” Or I would open the cupboard and expect to find all the cups right-side up, a habit of  hers that fretted me to no end.






For more great snippets, please visit Weekend Writing Warriors and Sunday Snippets

For more about the Lilac Hour, click HERE

#8Sunday #snipsun: One more week with Lenora

Happy Sunday! I hope all of you are having a wonderful summer. It's been hot here in New England this week. I've been at the beach, not a bad place to be when the weather gets blistery. It felt good to take a bit of a break, but now it's back to the computer. It's been a busy time for me, promo-wise. Sweet Lenora came out this week, the third of four releases I've had this summer. The last but not least, The Lilac Hour, comes out mid-month and over the next few weeks, I'll offer up a few snippets of that. But for now, I'd like to spend one more week with Lenora and Anton as they sail away towards love and adventure. 
Here, Lenora is caught as a stowaway and about to meet Anton:

The rapscallion with the knife grinned at me. He had few teeth and a malodorous smell came from the open cavity of his mouth. “What, and have you run off, little puss?”
     “Where would I run to?” My body shook at the folly of my coming above board. Would I had stayed in the safety of the hold!
     The rapscallion pulled his weapon back from my throat as another grabbed me round the waist. “Shall we unwrap our pretty present, boys?” 



For more Sunday Eight click Weekend Writing Warriors  HERE and visit Snippet Sunday on facebook HERE
For more on Sweet Lenora, including where you can buy a copy, click HERE 

Sweet Lenora sails today!

Sail to 1851, when Lenora Brewer stows away on the ship named for her and meets more than she'd imagined in the person of Captain Anton Bordeaux. In this, the first of the Anton and Lenora novella series, the two form a strong bond that is severely tested by weather and false accusations.


Here are a few of my favorite lines from the book

* My Aunt Louise looked up now and again from under the awning of her black umbrella to insure herself that I had not jumped in after the coffin or run off into the rain.

*The rapscallion pulled his weapon back from my throat as another grabbed me round the waist. “Shall we unwrap our prettypresent, boys?”

* In the dim light I could see a dark line etched into the captain’s shoulder, it oozed a deep color. I held the candle closer and saw the source was a deep gash that ran across his breast.

*Rio was a place as different from my native home as was a peacock from a goose.

*I made my promises in English and Anton did the same and even if the little priest understood not a word, we were given to know it was understood by God and that the union was made for better or worse, no matter what the tongue, for the language of the heart is spoken in all the corners of the earth.

*He examined me without humor, picked up my dress as though it were a washerwoman’s rag, and threw it onto the bed. “Get dressed.”

Lenora Brewer’s family owns the largest shipyard in Salem Massachusetts and Lenora, as her father’s only living child, is given free rein to learn the business. When Lenora’s father is killed in a carriage accident, her relatives arrange a marriage to a wealthy investor who is rumored to have beaten his first wife to death.

            Lenora devises a scheme to stowaway on The Sweet Lenora, a ship named for her.  

The last thing Anton Boudreaux needs is a naïve young woman stowing away on his ship. The dark and daring captain has secrets of his own to protect.

            When Sweet Lenora encounters a dangerous storm off the coast of Brazil, Lenora and Anton find in each other the courage and tenacity to brave the elements. As their love for one another grows it becomes a force to be reckoned with—and it will be sorely tested.

           

Your ticket to sail can be purchased here:

At BookStrand: http://www.bookstrand.com/sweet-lenora

#8Sunday--Sweet Lenora Sails Tomorrow.

 

It feels like a long time coming, Sweet Lenora releases tomorrow.  I'm going to do a little happy dance celebration. Meanwhile, here's eight from the novella.

“I’ll not let you go to such a man.”
“There is no one to stop it. I’ll be found out and brought back to my fate.”
“ I will stop it.” He kissed my eyes and my cheeks, then his mouth found mine. The taste of him melted my flesh into his. In that moment, had the ship been staved and turned to tinder, it would not have mattered. I had found what I wanted in this world.
For more Snippets, please click HERE
For more about Sweet Lenora, click HERE