Book Review for Fear in First Gear

 

Delaney Morran drives a tow truck…wearing four-inch stilettos! She inherited the truck from her late father, who died under mysterious circumstances, and has since made a name for herself as the high-heeled tow truck driver. As the story opens, she forgoes the heels for boots and responds to a traffic pile-up on the snowy mountain pass outside her Colorado town. While searching for vehicles stranded in the blizzard, she sees a woman sitting in a car…a woman who appears to be dead. With no cell phone service and the storm getting worse, Delaney is forced to return to town, where she tries her best to convince the local police officer of the woman’s demise. Having dealt with Delaney discovering dead people before, the officer isn’t convinced what she tells him is true. An avalanche on the pass prevents anyone from investigating, but Delaney is certain of what she saw. When the vehicle is finally found and the body recovered, it’s certain the driver was murdered.

The town’s police force, including Delaney’s romantic interest, do not want her help in solving the murder, but she begins her search for who killed the unfortunate woman. Along the way, she deals with an assortment of characters, including her best friend Kristin’s teen-age cousin, Axle, who plays drums in a local band, and his playful Rottweiler pup, Boss. Kristin, who owns the local coffeehouse, makes the best brew and is hoping to win a contest that will give her business a boost. But who is sabotaging her chances? And why? Secrets abound in this seventh book in the Tow Truck Mystery Series, and Delaney is relentless in her desire to uncover the truth, especially who left the dead woman on the pass. This also includes her trying to find out who was responsible for her father’s death.

I have not read the previous books in this series, but I had no trouble following the story. Delaney is a quirky, fun character, determined to make her own way in a male-dominated field of work. You have to admire her tenacity. If you enjoy cozy mysteries with a plucky heroine and a bit of romance, you will find that in Fear in First Gear.

Fear in First Gear will be released from The Wild Rose Press on July 16. Preorder here:

https://tinyurl.com/yz6sd68c

Links:  https://www.bookbub.com/books/fear-in-first-gear-the-tow-truck-murder-mysteries-book-7-by-karen-c-whalen

https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/7722479936

 

 

Snippet from Chance's Return

 Casey came to Wyoming to heal her heart. Chance returned to face the past. When they meet, love blooms like the wild lupine in the valley. But will their love last 'til summer's end?

My snippet for today is from my contemporary western romance, Chance's Return, Book One in North Star Legacy. The story is set near the Grand Tetons of Wyoming.

For a minute, she didn’t think he’d heard. He remained hunched over the full-to-the-brim mug of coffee that sat steaming on the counter in front of him. He hadn’t made it to the café in time to avoid the downpour. Rain darkened the faded denim jacket, and his battered, equally wet, black cowboy hat tilted low over his forehead, shadowing his face. He seemed totally withdrawn from the bustle of the café around him.

 Casey cleared her throat to speak again and found herself looking into eyes the same color as the moody sky above the mountains. With the chary gaze of a lone wolf, the man stared from beneath the hat brim. He needed a shave, and his dark hair curled just above the collar of his jacket. In one glance, he took her all in, from her pink running shoes and skinny jeans to her green-and-white college sweatshirt. His gaze lifted and dwelled on her face. She shifted from one foot to the other. A crazy rush of warmth flooded her from her toes to the roots of her ponytailed hair.

#wrpbks #romance #amreading #lovestory #cowboyromance #snippetsunday

Forget Prince Charming. I Want a Cowboy.

 

Once upon a time a little girl loved horses, westerns…and cowboys. The fascination started when she and her dad watched Saturday afternoon movies with heroes like Gene Autry, Roy Rogers, and the Lone Ranger. In those days, a lot of westerns filled the airwaves on TV, and as she grew older, the girl graduated to Gunsmoke, Bonanza, and the Virginian, where cowboy heroes and their horses were larger than life. Eventually, the girl grew up and read romance novels with—you guessed it—cowboy heroes, buying into the whole cowboy myth that has been a big part of American entertainment. Writing her own cowboy hero story just seemed a logical next step. And so, she did.

 Chance’s Return, was my first published novel. Ex-rodeo champ Chance McCord is the epitome of the handsome, reckless, cowboy-rounder, but in spite of my very best efforts, his story has had its setbacks over the years. Suffice it to say, the history of my book would fill a book. The first publisher canceled their romance line before my book made it into print. The second publisher went bankrupt and the rights, along with the rights of all their authors’ works, were held as part of the company’s assets. When rights were finally returned to me, I submitted the story to the Wild Rose Press. This time the book was published and enjoyed a short success with some nice reviews, although the inspirational line of romances they published broke off into its own company. Years passed; Chance’s Return languished and my writing went in a different direction. The day came when I decided to ask for my rights back. I’d written a sequel and wanted to see both books published together but not as inspirational.

I spent months rewriting the book, even through hand surgery, making the story quite different from the original version, although my cowboy hero remained the same handsome rodeo guy. He came with a whole host of problems, though, as did Casey Girard, the pretty widow who catches his eye and wins his heart. As their love story blooms in the shadow of the Grand Tetons of Wyoming, Chance and Casey find that love the second time around is indeed sweet, if fraught with its own set of problems.

I’m pleased to announce Chance’s Return was accepted once again by The Wild Rose Press and released on April 16, 2025. I’m even more excited that the sequel Tetons by Morning is also contracted by TWRP. A third book, Fire in the Heart, will follow at a future date. I call my trilogy of western contemporary romances The North Star Legacy, after the McCord family’s ranch, the North Star. The books are full of family drama, people learning to live with and rise above past mistakes and tragedies, and of course, romance. I’m hoping this time around, Chance’s Return will have its chance to find a new audience who will want to read more about my cowboy hero, the McCord family, and the woman who changes their lives.

Casey came to Wyoming to heal her heart. Chance returned to face the past. Love blooms like the summer lupine in the valley, but will their pasts keep them apart? 

https://wildrosepress.com/product/chances-return/

Release Date and Cover Reveal!

 I'm pleased today to announce a release date of April 16 for my next book, Chance's Return, and also a cover reveal. The story takes place near the Grand Tetons of Wyoming, and for anyone who has been there, you will know this scene on the cover is one of the most popular in the park. The barn is probably one of the most photographed in the country, and walking the paths around it is a remarkable experience I will never forget. The blue lupine does grow there and the mountains are that majestic. What better place to set a love story!

Chance's Return was first published many years ago and has a storied history, but this is a new, completely revised version and now is the first book in the North Star Legacy series. The hero Chance McCord has come home to a family still divided by tragedy. The heroine Casey Girard has come to Wyoming to heal from her own past hurt. When they meet, the attraction is instant and powerful. But is it enough to sustain a lasting relationship? Finding their way may take some time, but it's a love story you won't soon forget.

Thank you to my publisher, The Wild Rose Press, for giving this story new life.

 

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/

https://twitter.com/LucyKubash

https://instagram.com/lucykubash_author/

Will o' the Wisp--Epilogue

A year later...

 

Grandma Ellie’s roses were in full bloom, and June burst in a riot of colors across the fields of Allison’s Farm. It was very much like the day a boy from Detroit had stepped onto the porch, and the one when a man from the West had walked into Allison’s barn. The memory of both days would forever remain stored in her heart, as would many others in the past years, but none would match the joy in her life today.

 As she walked towards the pasture, Gypsy ran around barking and the cats sprang to the top of the fence posts. The commotion brought the horses to the gate. Inquisitive as ever, they crowded close to see what Allison carried in her arms. When she stood at the fence, Melody nickered and snuffled at the pink blanket wrapped bundle.

 Sarah Ellen McBride, named for her great-grandmothers, stirred and flung out a tiny fist to bump the old broodmare’s nose. Melody didn’t budge but breathed softly on the tiny girl’s dark fluff of hair.

 “Do you think Melody knows it’s a baby?” Lizzie climbed on the fence while Mystri and the fillies Starlight and Stardust moved in for a look-see.

 “She had many babies herself. I’m sure she does.” Allison held her week old daughter up to meet the residents of the pasture, much as she had done with Lizzie ten years ago.

 “Will you like horses, Sarah?” Lizzie put out a finger for the baby to grasp. “I’ll let you have my pony. I’m getting a little too big to ride Cayenne.”

 “I think she’ll love him just as you do.” Allison tucked the baby back in the curve of her arm. “How do you feel about having a sister?”

 Lizzie shrugged but managed a close-mouthed smile that hid her new braces. “She’s okay. Except when she cries at night.”

 “You did, too. She’ll grow out of it.”

 As if she’d heard the word, Sarah Ellen started to fuss loudly.

 “Hey, is this gathering for girls only or can a guy join the party?” Shane came up behind them and peeked over Allison’s shoulder at the little face working up to a good cry.

 “We’re introducing her,” Lizzie said. “And it looks like the girls are more interested than the boys.” She motioned to Tank, Pride, Major and Duncan who had moved away when the bundle made noise.

 “I think they feel outnumbered.” He touched Sarah’s scrunched up nose. She stopped fussing and fixed deep blue eyes on her father.

 Allison glanced up at him. “Do you? Feel outnumbered?”

 “Only most of the time.” He winked at her and followed them up to the house.

 While they went inside, Shane paused to look out toward the old orchard and the woods beyond. It was a day very much like this one when he’d stepped down from the bus and come looking for a job…and met a girl named Allison Tyler. Some days it still seemed hard to believe he’d come back to Michigan, and that he and Allison were together. It seemed even more amazing they now had two daughters. Life had a funny way of working out sometimes, but in this case, he liked to think Pop and Ellie Tyler would approve.

 Later that night, while lying in bed upstairs in the old farmhouse, he told Allison what he’d heard in Jackson’s General that day. A farmer forty miles north had reported seeing something strange on his land. Something he said looked very much like a large cat.

 “It’s possible it could return here,” he added. “They have a wide range.”

 She tucked Sarah into her bassinet and climbed into bed to snuggle beside him. “I don’t think so. I think it’s old and time is short. I hope he just wanders off into the woods somewhere and fades away.”

 “There’s no certainty of that.”

 She sighed. “Life is a long list of uncertainties. We just have to learn to live with them. But I know the certainties we do have.”

 A deep sense of contentment filled Shane’s heart when Allison curled up against his side and hugged him. “Yeah? What’s that?”

 “Our love and the family we’ve made.”

 He kissed the top of her head.

 It was all either of them had ever really wanted.

 https://www.thewildrosepress.com/books/will-o-the-wisp

Author Interview with Love Bytes

The following interview first appeared in the October issue of the Love Bytes newsletter, an official publication of the RWA Online Chapter.

Interview with Lucy Kubash

Karen Jones

 

Tell us about your new book.

 My new book is Will o’ the Wisp, a contemporary romance with a touch of mystery and suspense. It was released by The Wild Rose Press on August 7, 2019. Here’s the book blurb.

In spite of a broken heart, Allison Delaney carved out a life for herself and her young daughter on her grandparents' farm. Her child and the horses she rescues are all that matter. Then a sudden threat to their safety puts her back in touch with Shane McBride, the man she never thought to see again. Returning to the small town of Silver Creek brings back a lot of memories for Shane, ones he treasures haunted by the ones that made him leave, but this time he is determined to stay and make things right. Trusting Shane may be her only choice, but now Allison fears not only the threat against her farm but the risk of losing her heart again.

What inspired the story?

Will o’ the Wisp first began as a short story many years ago and was inspired by events that occurred in Michigan. I was writing for a magazine at that time, and when they didn’t accept this one, I put it away in my file cabinet. This was pre-computer days, if you can believe it! I always knew I’d return to the story someday. When I finally did, I decided the characters needed a full-length book to tell their story.

What inspired the title?

Because of the sense of an eerie danger that threatens my heroine Allison and the return of a love that slipped away from her, I wanted a title that evoked a sense of something that you’re not quite sure is really there, that might easily disappear. Or as Allison says in the story, “Something so fragile, so elusive you’re afraid if you look away, it will be gone.”

 What travel did your research involve?

While the story itself is set in Michigan, where I’ve always lived, the hero Shane McBride has returned from living in Wyoming for years. We’ve traveled through that state quite a bit, so I was able to use some of what I’ve learned about it in this story and compared Shane’s feelings about leaving Wyoming to coming back to Michigan after so long.

 

 What was the most difficult aspect of writing Will o’ the Wisp?

The hardest part was learning to let go and let it happen. By that I mean, letting the characters do their thing instead of my trying to force what I thought should happen. When I fought them on it, the story stalled. When I finally allowed them to take the story in the direction they wanted it to go, I couldn’t write it fast enough. Might sound weird, but it’s true. Shane and Allison really took on a life of their own.

What was the easiest aspect of writing Will o’ the Wisp?

 Writing about the animals that are all secondary characters in the story. I’ve always been an animal lover, and the ones in this story all have their own personalities. I loved naming them and learning their stories, which then became important to the plot, especially the horses that Allison rescues.

When did you start writing and why?

I remember making up stories in my head when I was just a kid. In junior high, a few of my friends and I wrote what is now called fan fiction. We wrote stories about our favorite characters on TV. I started writing a historical romance about that time, which remains unfinished, and always enjoyed the writing assignments in school (when everyone else hated them, lol!). I started writing contemporary romance when my children were small and sold my first short story to Woman’s World magazine thirty-six years ago. Those stories are now included in five anthologies available at Amazon. Why did I start writing? I love reading and writing just seemed to be an extension of that, plus I always felt writing lets me live other lives, even if just vicariously. When did you start reading romance and what did you read? I’ve always loved stories with a romance or love interest. I like happy endings. As a teen, because I couldn’t find much romance in my local library, I read biographies of presidents and their wives. Then I started reading Phyllis Whitney’s romantic suspense and Victoria Holt’s gothic romance. For contemporary, I enjoy Kathleen Eagle, Karen White (love her ghost stories), and Luanne Rice. My friend Rosanne Bittner writes fabulous western historical romance, so I try to keep up with them. While I do like an HEA, I also like mystery and crime and am reading Margaret Coel’s Wind River mysteries, Sharyn McCrumb’s Appalachian books, and the Craig Johnson Longmire books.

What was your funniest moment as an author?

My friend Rosanne and I were doing a book signing at a local bookstore. I only had one book out at that time, so not like I had stacks of different ones on the table. A lady came up and asked if one of us was Jayne Ann Krentz. She thought she saw in the paper where JAK was doing a book signing that day. We both laughed. Not in small town Michigan! I’m still not sure how she managed to get Jayne Ann Krentz out of Lucy Naylor Kubash, but it gave us a good chuckle that day.

 

 How and where is your book available and what are you working on now?

Will o’ the Wisp is available in both print and e-book. You can find it at Amazon, B&N, Kobo and many other fine retailers. You can also ask your local library to order it. As an anecdote, I have to add that when I finished revising and editing this book, for maybe the one hundredth time, before sending it out, I decided to submit it on the day of the Great Solar Eclipse of August 21, 2017, because I thought that might bring good luck. It did! The Wild Rose Press accepted it shortly after and now here we are with it releasing in the same month. Currently, I’m finishing up revisions on a sequel to my first book, Chance’s Return. This one is titled, Tetons by Morning and is set near one of my most favorite places, The Grand Tetons of Wyoming. I would also like to finish that historical I once started.

Website: http://lucynaylorkubash.com

Author Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/LucyNaylorKubash/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/LucyKubash