It is my pleasure to share the cover reveal for fellow author Wendy Rich Stetson's upcoming new release, Shooting Sunshine. Isn't it beautiful?

One photograph can change everything

On assignment in Green Ridge, PA, New York photojournalist Darcy King will stop at nothing to bag a prestigious staff position at Hudson Magazine. Just one problem: her subjects are Amish, and they shun having their pictures taken.

 

As a wild teen on his Amish Rumspringa, Samuel Rishel fell prey to a photographer who splashed his face on a romance novel and left him with trust issues. Older and definitely wiser, he wants nothing to do with cameras until a pretty young photographer arrives in the family’s farmhouse B&B. Eager to support his mother’s fledgling business, he’ll help Darcy on one condition—no pictures of faces allowed.

 

Will Samuel and Darcy go from enemies to something more? Or will a single photograph shatter their trust forever?

You can check out Wendy on Facebook: AuthorWendyRichStetson and on

Instagram: wendyrichstetson_author

Congratulations, Wendy, on a great cover! Looking forward to the release of Shooting Sunshine on September 30th.

Excerpt from "The Christmas Wish."

 I believe I was born loving horses. I always wanted one but sadly, it never happened when I was a child. My daughter was also born loving them (is that a genetic trait maybe?) and I made up my mind that I would make it happen for her. At the time, I was writing short stories for a magazine and getting paid rather well for them (that was another time and place!). I decided to use the money from one of those stories to buy a horse for us. And I did! Staccato was a great horse, and we had him for ten years until he passed away one day very unexpectedly. We were all crushed. 

Though we didn't get him at Christmas, this story, The Christmas Wish, grew out of our experience, and it will always remind me of our little Arabian, Haf Staccato.

Ever since Hope could remember, Caitlin had wanted a horse. When her daughter could only toddle, she would clamber aboard the mechanical pony at the supermarket and refuse to budge until her mother dug for change in her purse. Three rides satisfied Caitlin then, that and the stuffed pony she got when she turned five. A few years later, she graduated to collecting model horses. Now Caitlin was 13, and this Christmas she wanted the real thing. 

Along with two other holiday stories in the collection, The Christmas Wish is featured this month of August in the For the Love of Horses Book Fair. I hope you'll stop by and check out all the other great horse stories and maybe want to read the rest of Hope and Caitlin's story.

https://books.bookfunnel.com/horse-themed_novels/o7cdst2m7d

For the Love of Horses Book Fair

 It's Live!!

If you love horses, be sure to check out a book fair that features books all with horses. Coming tomorrow, excerpts from my two featured books.

https://books.bookfunnel.com/horse-themed_novels/o7cdst2m7d

 

The Partridge Christmas Collection

 

Today my guest is friend and fellow author Patricia Kiyono. Patricia and I have belonged to the same writing group for a long time, and she writes wonderful sweet historical stories. Please join me in welcoming Patricia, as she tells us about this collection of Christmas tales.

 The Partridge Christmas Collection is a box set including five titles inspired by the holiday carol “The Twelve Days of Christmas” as well as a sixth story that includes characters from the first book. This series began when my then-publisher (Astraea Press) put out a call for holiday regency romance novellas. The planned multi-author series was to be called “The Twelve Dukes of Christmas” and the two things each story needed to include were a duke and a scene taking place at a ball hosted by Lord and Lady Kringle on Christmas Eve, 1812. 

 

I had never written a regency romance, but I love a good challenge and decided to try. Thanks to several writer friends, I managed to meet the deadline with The Partridge and the Peartree, the story of how Phillip Partridge, Duke of Bartlett, met and fell in love with Lady Amelia Peartree.

 

A few years later, I got the rights back for the story and submitted it to Eskape Press. In addition to giving the book a new cover, I had the opportunity to correct a few historical errors pointed out to me by readers. And in answer to those who asked “What happened to the Duke and Duchess of Bartlett?” I wrote a sequel called Love’s Refrain. And then, knowing that eventually the duchess would have to take a break from teaching the children at the chapel school, I paired Robert Townley, the duke’s valet, with Jeanne Brown, the duchess’ maid for the story I called Two Tutor Doves.

 

In my mind, a series should have at least three books. So, the following Christmas I decided that the verse about the three French hens would become Three French Inns, and would take place in the French countryside. Fortunately, I’d laid the groundwork for that in Two Tutor Doves because Jeanne had a French mother who’d been disowned by her upper-class family. She also had a brother who’d fought in France with the British army. I decided that the brother, Peter Brown, would return to France to look into the fortune they’d inherited from that grandfather. In the process, he’s reunited with Caroline Duvall, a young French nurse he’d met during the Napoleonic wars.

 

The fourth verse was fun to work with. I decided that four calling birds would become Four Calling Bards, in which Amanda Collins, a vicar’s daughter, suddenly finds herself with four suitors, all of whom write to her in hopes of gaining her favor. The hero in this story is Andrew Sommers, one of the children from Two Tutor Doves, who has become a footman in the village of Whitecastle.

 

To finish the series, I took a character who appeared briefly in Four Calling Bards. Five Gold Rings is the story of Amanda’s aunt, Grace Collins Montgomery. When Grace, a social reformer, decides to join the fight against the railroad coming through her home city of Cambridge, she’s up against Arthur Gregory, the railroad station’s architect. 

 

The six stories in this collection take us from 1812 through 1840. A lot of advancements in science, medicine, and social issues took place during this time, and are reflected through the stories. I’m hoping readers enjoy them!

 

 

Bio: Patricia lives in West Michigan, USA, not far from her children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren. Current interests, aside from writing, include sewing, crocheting, scrapbooking, and making music. A love of travel and an interest in faraway people inspires her to create stories about different cultures.

 

 

The Patridge Christmas Collection is available only at Amazon.

Patricia Kiyono can be found on her website and on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Bookbub, and Amazon.

FOR THE LOVE OF HAWTHORNE

 My guest today is author Diana Rubino. She brings us a post that is timely for this season but also informative, as she tells us about her new book, For the Love of  Hawthorne, and why she wrote it.

Welcome Diana!

FOR THE LOVE OF HAWTHORNE

 

Nathaniel and Sophia Hawthorne called themselves Adam and Eve as he suffered the shame of his family’s connection to the Salem Witch Trials.

 

 

 

 

 

Meet Diana

 

 

My passion for history and travel has taken me to every locale of my books and short stories, set in Medieval and Renaissance England, Paris, Egypt, the Mediterranean, colonial Virginia, New England, Washington D.C. and New York. My urban fantasy romance, FAKIN’ IT, won a Top Pick award from Romantic Times. I’m a member of Romance Writers of America, the Richard III Society and the Aaron Burr Association. My husband Chris and I own CostPro, an engineering firm based in Boston. In my spare time, I bicycle, golf, play my piano, devour books of any genre, and spend as much time as possible living the dream on my beloved Cape Cod.

 

About FOR THE LOVE OF HAWTHORNE

 

Salem, Massachusetts witnessed horrific and shameful events in 1692 that haunted the town for three centuries. Accused as witches, nineteen innocent people were hanged and one was pressed to death. Judge John Hathorne and Reverend Nicholas Noyes handed down the sentences. One victim, Sarah Good, cursed Noyes from the hanging tree: “If you take away my life, God will give you blood to drink!” She then set her eyes on Judge Hathorne. “I curse you and your acknowledged heirs for all time on this wicked earth!” Hathorne was not only Sarah Good’s merciless judge; he also fathered her son Peter and refused to acknowledge him.

 

In 1717, Nicholas Noyes choked on his own blood and died. Every generation after the judge continued to lose Hathorne land and money, prompting the rumor of a family curse. By the time his great great grandson Nathaniel was born, they faced poverty.

 

Ashamed of his ancestor, Nathaniel added the ‘w’ to his last name. His novels and stories explore his beliefs and fears of sin and evil, and he based many of his characters on overbearing Puritan rulers such as Judge Hathorne.

 

When Nathaniel first met Sophia Peabody, they experienced instantaneous mutual attraction. Sparks flew. He rose upon my eyes and soul a king among men by divine right, she wrote in her journal.

 

But to Sophia’s frustration, Nathaniel insisted they keep their romance secret for three years. He had his reasons, none of which made sense to Sophia. But knowing that he believed Sarah Good’s curse inflicted so much tragedy on his family over the centuries, she made it her mission to save him. Sarah was an ancestor of Sophia’s, making her and Nathaniel distant cousins—but she kept that to herself for the time being.

 

Sophia Peabody’s home next to Charter Street Burying Ground, resting place of Judge Hathorne, Salem, MA

 

 

Sophia suffered severe headaches as a result of childhood mercury treatments. She underwent routine mesmerizing sessions, a popular cure for many ailments. Spirits sometimes came to her when mesmerized, and as a spiritualist and medium, she was able to contact and communicate with spirits. She knew if she could reach Sarah and persuade her to forgive Judge Hathorne, Nathaniel would be free of his lifelong burden.

 

Sarah Good’s son Peter had kept a journal the family passed down to the Peabodys. Sophia sensed his presence every time she turned the brittle pages and read his words. John Hathorne’s legitimate son John also kept a journal, now in the Hawthorne family’s possession. Living on opposite sides of Salem in 1692, Peter and John wrote in vivid detail about how the Salem trials tormented them throughout their lives.

 

Nathaniel finally agreed to announce their engagement, and married Sophia on July 9, 1842. They moved into their first home, The Old Manse in Concord, Massachusetts. Wanting nothing else but to spend the summer enjoying each other, we became Adam and Eve, alone in our Garden of Eden, Sophia wrote in her journal.

 

The Old Manse, the Hawthornes' first home as newlyweds

 

As success eluded Nathaniel, they lived on the verge of poverty. After being dismissed from his day job at the Salem Custom House, he wrote The Scarlet Letter, which finally gained him the recognition he deserved. But the curse he believed Sarah cast on his family still haunted him. In the book he asks for the curse to be lifted.

 

The House of the Seven  Gables, Salem, MA, built in 1668

 

Sophia urged Nathaniel to write a novel about the house, knowing it would be cathartic for him. While they lived in Lenox, Nathaniel finished writing The House of the Seven Gables. The Gothic novel explored all his fears and trepidations about the curse. He told Sophia, “Writing it, and especially reading it aloud to you lifted a tremendous burden off my shoulders. I felt it physically leave me. I carried this inside me since my youth and couldn’t bring it out to face it. And I have you, and only you, to thank.”

 

But he did not believe the curse could be lifted.

 

Sophia invited renowned spiritualist John Spear to The Gables. She explained that she needed to complete one final step to convince Nathaniel the curse was lifted.

 

Read More About John Spear

 

http://mysteriousuniverse.org/2014/06/the-bizarre-mechanical-messiah-of-john-murray-spear/John Spear

 

John Spear urged Nathaniel to forgive Judge Hathorne. “You don’t have to say it out loud,” John said. “Just forgive him in your heart.”

 

Nathaniel whispered his forgiveness.

 

John, Nathaniel and Sophia went to Judge Hathorne’s gravesite to give the journals proper burial.

 

Grave of Judge Hathorne, Charter Street Burial Ground, Salem, MA

 

Why I wrote FOR THE LOVE OF HAWTHORNE

 

I live near Salem and have been to all the Hawthorne landmarks there, and in Concord. The House of the Seven Gables has been my favorite house in the world since I'm a kid. I've always felt a strong spiritual connection to Salem, and always wanted to write one of my books set there, including the witch trials.

 

I read several of his books and stories, to get a better background on him. Nathaniel wrote from the heart, about his true beliefs, and his loathing of how the witch victims were treated. He did consider it disgraceful, and it certainly was. He added the 'w' to his last name to distance himself from the judge. That tormented him and his family all his life. It must have been cathartic to him to have his writing as his outlet.

Visit Salem

 

www.salem.org

 

I was fortunate to get a private tour of the House of the Seven Gables when I was writing the book; two of the guides, Ryan Conary and David Moffat, showed me around, and it was fabulous.

Click here to see their book about the house.

 

 

 

The Wayside, the only home the Hawthornes ever owned, in Concord, MA

Nathaniel added that room at the top for his writing studio

 

An Excerpt From FOR THE LOVE OF HAWTHORNE (Sophia and Nathaniel’s visit to his cousin Susan Ingersoll at The House of the Seven Gables)

 

I went over to a curio cabinet and swept my eyes over the items on the shelves—a china doll wearing a calico dress, a stack of gold cups and saucers, a red and blue glass checkerboard propped up to display its surface…and a wooden hammer on the top shelf. Upon closer inspection, I saw it was a gavel that judges use in trials. Out of curiosity I picked it up and a shock ran through me as if electrified. Dear God, was it that gavel?

I dropped it to the rug. It landed with a thump. I bent to retrieve it. Somehow I knew it wouldn’t shock me this time—that was only an initial warning. “Something about it made me want to touch it, to pick it up and hold it.”

Nathaniel approached me. He stared at the gavel in my hand, horror darkening his eyes. His lips parted but no words emerged. I knew what he was thinking—the curse. He turned to his cousin, pointing at the gavel, his arm trembling.

Susan hurried over to us, took it from me and placed it back on the shelf. “Yes, it’s Judge Hathorne’s. What happened, Sophie? Are you all right?”

I looked down at my open hands, palms up. They burned as if I’d touched a hot poker. “That gavel—it carries something evil. Has anything happened to you with this, Susie?”

Nathaniel backed away and before Susan could answer me, he grasped her arm. “I begged you to get rid of that accursed thing! You know it shouldn’t be here!”

She looked from him to me, heaving a deep sigh. “I’m not inclined to dispose of it, Natty. It’s a family heirloom, notwithstanding its past.”

He gripped the chair, his face drained of color. “It’s downright evil. You know what he used that thing for.”

She held her hands up in surrender. “Very well, I’ll conceal it.” She took it off the shelf and slid it behind the checkerboard.

“That should not be in this house!” He stood his ground, his eyes fixed on the checkerboard as if it would melt in such close proximity to that horrid object.

“It’s fine there, Natty. It’s concealed from sight now.” She looked at me and gestured for me to sit again. I sat and gulped my sherry.

“Nathaniel’s always overcome with distress at the witch trials.” Susan explained what I already knew.

“And so should you be,” he cut in.

“If I must speak for Judge Hathorne, I heard stories of him from my grandfather.” Susan looked from Nathaniel to me. “The whole hysteria that caught up the judge was started by unscrupulous men to further their own riches. But spectral evidence was still admissible. No sane person could believe that blithery.”

 

 

Purchase FOR THE LOVE OF HAWTHORNE

 

http://getbook.at/LoveOfHawthorne 

 

Connect with Diana

 

My Website

www.dianarubino.com

 

My Blog

www.dianarubinoauthor.blogspot.com

 

Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/DianaRubinoAuthor/?ref=hl

 

Twitter

https://twitter.com/DianaLRubino

 

 

 

 

THE OTHER KIND OF GHOSTING

 My guest today is author Kimberly Baer. Her YA paranormal The Haunted Purse is great reading for this time of  year, and I will let her tell you about that story and some experiences with the other-worldly.

Welcome, Kimberly!

The Other Kind of Ghosting

By Kimberly Baer

How likely is it that a purse could be haunted? My guess: not very. What self-respecting ghost would choose to be squished  amongst a scratchy hairbrush, a lumpy wallet, that leaky bottle of hand sanitizer, and the dozens of other items crammed into the typical modern-day handbag? Assuming that ghosts get to choose their locale, most would probably opt for the roomy accommodations of a house or the wide open spaces of a graveyard.

Still, you never know. Tiny houses are increasing in popularity among the living. Maybe ghosts like tight spaces, too.

My YA paranormal novel The Haunted Purse is pure fiction, but that doesn’t mean ghosts don’t exist. Ghostly encounters have been reported all over the world, probably for as long as humans have been living and dying. Haunted sites include castles, cabins, houses, apartments, hotels, battlefields, graveyards, caves, mines, ships, schools, tunnels, and probably a bunch of other places.

Many of us know somebody who’s had an encounter with a ghost, and some of us have even had our own encounters. I can’t say for certain whether I’ve ever met up with a ghost, but if I did, it happened like this:

- In 2014 I visited my son in Long Beach, California, and we toured the Queen Mary, which has been named one of the Top 10 Haunted Places by Time magazine. At one point, the tour guide announced that we were standing in one of the most haunted rooms on the ship. Just as I snapped a picture, a strange white blob streaked across the screen of my camera. It didn’t show up on the photo, and nobody noticed anything unusual in the room at the time. I like to think it was a ghost caught in the glare of my camera, like a deer in the headlights.

Okay, okay; that might not be the most enthralling ghost story you’ve ever heard. I have some better ones from people near and dear to me, people whose integrity I can vouch for:

- A few years ago when my sister was out driving, she suddenly felt the presence of a child in her car. The feeling persisted when she returned home, and odd things started happening. For instance, she’d get up in the morning and find the kitchen trash can in the middle of the floor. She did some research and learned that the spot where she’d first sensed that strange presence was the site of a recent car accident in which a three-year-old boy had died. She started talking to the child’s spirit, urging him to move on, and eventually he did.

- A dear and trusted colleague of mine lived in a centuries-old townhouse in Alexandria, Virginia. She often talked about her resident ghost, a benign and playful spirit who liked to move things around. The spirit’s coolest trick: lighting candles.

Have YOU ever had a ghostly encounter? Would you like to? If so, you could try buying an old purse at a thrift store, as my protagonist Libby does in The Haunted Purse. If that doesn’t work, consider visiting some well-known haunted places, such as El Campo Santo Cemetery in San Diego, California; King’s Tavern in Natchez, Mississippi; or various sites in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. Visitors to those locations have reported everything from seeing apparitions and hearing strange noises to being pushed, scratched, or pinched by an unknown force.

Now wouldn’t that make for a memorable trip!

Back-cover blurb for The Haunted Purse:

That old denim purse Libby Dawson bought at the thrift store isn’t your run-of-the-mill teenage tote. It’s a bag of secrets, imbued with supernatural powers. Strange items keep turning up inside, clues to a decades-old mystery only Libby can solve.

Filled with apprehension and yet intrigued by the mounting pile of evidence, Libby digs for the truth. And eventually finds it. But the story of the purse is darker than she imagined—and its next horrific chapter is going to be all about her.

Excerpt from The Haunted Purse

Toni asked, “Do you think we should tell my mom about the purse?”

“No,” I said. I wasn’t ready to trust an adult. Not even Toni’s mom, nice as she was. “Your mom is like you,” I added. “Practical. It would take a long time to convince her there’s something supernatural going on.”

We went back to watching the purse. There was a moment when I thought I saw it twitch, but that might have been my imagination.

“You could always get rid of it,” Toni said. “You know, donate it back to the thrift store.”

I considered that. “I could. But I don’t want to. Not yet, anyway. This purse is the coolest thing I’ve ever owned. I want to find out more about it. I want to see what it does next.”

She took her eyes from the purse long enough to glance at me. “Aren’t you afraid it’ll crawl into your bed some night and strangle you with its straps?”

“No. I think it’s trying to get my attention. It’s trying to tell me something.”

“Like what?”

I didn’t have a clue.

About the Author

Kimberly Baer is an author and professional editor who was born and raised in Johnstown, Pennsylvania, a town marginally famous for having endured three major floods—and she lived there during one of them. She currently lives in Virginia. Kim has had her nose in a book practically since birth, and she decided early on that she wanted to be on the giving end of the reading experience as well as the receiving end. Her first story, written at age six, was about a baby chick that hatched out of a little girl’s Easter egg after somehow surviving the hard-boiling process. Her recent focus has been on writing middle-grade and young adult fiction. 

 

Author Links

Website  |  Twitter  |  Facebook

Book trailer for The Haunted Purse

Buy The Haunted Purse

 Amazon  |  Barnes and Noble | Apple |  Google  |  Kobo  |  Walmart.com

 

 

 

 

The Haunting of Laurel Cove

 

I love the Smoky Mountains! With their hazy mists and secret coves, the Smokies are mysterious and full of secrets, and they can easily pull you into their spell. From the moment I saw them, I thought  they presented a perfect setting for a mystery/romance/ghost story.

I wrote The Haunting of Laurel Cove after my first visit to the Smokies more than a few years ago. The story went through many rewrites and garnered an honorable mention in a contest along the way. When Covid reared its ugly head, I dragged the original manuscript out from its hiding place, resurrected the flash drive where the last version was saved, and set about rewriting the entire book...one more time. It became what I called my Pandemic Project, and it kept me busy and productive for the many months we spent sitting at home that year. Then off it went to the Wild Rose Press. I'm happy to say it will release on December 6, 2022. 

Shattered dreams, family secrets, rekindled love. Which is the biggest threat to life and sanity to a broken woman trying to heal?  

When Jane Stuart returns to the Smoky Mountains and the house she inherited from her grandmother with the hope to heal from a brutal mugging, she find herself obsessed with a local legend involving a witch and a mysterious cabin.

Upon reconnecting with an old boyfriend now turned handsome environmentalist, she finds herself rekindling her attraction to Brendan McGarren and is drawn into his battle to keep Laurel Cove from becoming a rich man's playground. As she begins to uncover family secrets pertaining to the witch and the cabin, Jane questions her own sanity. Then the threats begin. Can she trust Brendan?

Will the search for the truth cost Jane her life?

Here is an excerpt from The Haunting of Laurel Cove:

I glanced up into the woods, staring once more into vacant windows. The eyes and soul of a house no longer inhabited, at least not by anyone of this world. Voices whirled about in my mind. Lights have been seen in the cabin, after dark. Some say she doesn't rest at all, but walks at night. Then, from somewhere, the echo of a dog's plaintive howl sent icy fingers sliding down my backbone.

"I was here the other day," I said, my voice hushed . "I didn't know it was Cissy's cabin, but now I remember being here a long time ago, when the other kids were taunting her. It was awful, and I knew Gran would be upset with  me. I think maybe she felt sorry for Cissy, or maybe she even knew her, before it happened."

"Before what happened?" Brendan drew next to me and leaned over to put his hand on mine where I gripped the reins. 

I tore my gaze from the cabin and looked into his turquoise eyes. "The murder."

He considered this a moment before he said, "I think we should leave now."

Did he feel it too? The presence of someone other than us? 

We did not talk at all as we rode away, but I couldn't resist a single backward glance at the lonely cabin. Strange how the breeze sifting through the trees now sounded more like someone's gentle sighing. Cecilia Jane.  

I'm so excited for this book's release. I hope you'll enjoy it!

You may preorder it now at these fine retailers:

Amazon: https://tinyurl.com/3v2fhfeu

Barnes and Noble: https://tinyurl.com/y6kktzpp

If are a library patron, please ask your local library to order The Haunting of  Laurel Cove.

ISBN: 978-1-2092-4551-2

Also from Lucy Naylor Kubash and The Wild Rose Press

Will o' the Wisp 

ISBN:  978-1-5092-2694-8

Please visit my Amazon Author Page:  

www.amazon.com/author/lucynaylorkubash

Look for me here;

www.lucynaylorkubash.com

https://www.facebook.com/LucyNaylorKubash/

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