I loved this quote because it reminded me you have to have the courage to keep going and trying to be a better person. It also reminds me that just because you have success once doesn’t mean it will stay that way. You always have to keep working and improving because if you don’t you will fall behind and have to basically start over. You have to keep learning and progressing in order to stay on top of your game.
What do you think about this week’s quote by Winston Churchill?
Her most recent accomplishment started in the summer of 2015. Making her dad’s dream come true with publishing his works as well, as an emotional accomplishment. She is the 2016 local A.N.W.A. chapter (Snake River Writers) president, won NaNoWriMo and loves StoryMakers.
Teya has been writing for as long as she can remember. At a young age she lived on a street she affectionately named Hill Street Blues, which helped her creative writing. Her Family moved to Menan where she continued her love of writing. Her father would always be and will continue to be her inspiration, even after his untimely death in 2006.
She loves sitting in her soft chair next to the fireplace and watching out a big living room window. It gives her plenty of creative juice for stories.
She met the love of her life in the loft of a barn. Yep, that set up some teasing from her father. They have been happily married since 2003. They have four children and all are loving and supportive of her writing. Her oldest daughter is following in her footsteps as a writer adding her own illustrations. She refuses to comment on the trolls in the closets and under the beds. She is active in her church, has compassion for others, and a love for all life brings.
Tell us about things you enjoy — what you do for fun or personal satisfaction besides writing?
I enjoy being with my family, hiking, and getting out into nature and being physical with the world around me.
What is the thing you struggle with the most while writing? And how do you defeat it?
I do not have the word “struggle” in my vocabulary. It stops anything positive. We have a phrase in our home that derives from a favorite movie series, it is, “do, or do not, there is no try.”
What are your future projects?
Future projects: Death by the slice- a romance thriller, Shadow movers- a trilogy, a couple “unknown titles” at this time, The wife (title unsecured)- suspense thriller, and a couple books of short stories.
What is the “message” of your writing?
a message in my books, hmm. I think learning about oneself. Each one has something to think about and you see yourself how you need to change.
Are your characters/stories/scenes, etc. based on anything in real life?
Are my character/ stories/scenes based on real life? YES!
Have you done anything writing-related, besides actually writing your books, that seemed to get a lot of positive response? Something that encouraged you?
I speak to elementary kids about writing. It’s pure joy to me to watch there faces light up and be excited about the story wanting to break free from each one of them.
To view our blog schedule and follow along with this tour visit our Official Event page
FTC: I received a free copy of this book from First Words in exchange for my honest review. I received no other compensation and the opinions expressed in this review are one hundred percent true and my own.
Kill Shot by Susan Sleeman was a book that left me wondering if something like this could really happen. I love books like this that make me stop and think about whether or not things like that could really happen. I was a huge fan of this book right from the start, and I didn’t even mind the romance parts that were in the book. I really like Rick right from the start, and Oliva did grow on me throughout the book. I really enjoyed the plot and even though I was able to figure out what was going to happen before the book ended. This is book two in the “White Knight” series, and I am for sure going to go back and read book one because I am sure I will love that book just as much as I enjoyed this book. I also hope that she writes more books in this series because I can’t wait to read them in the future.
About The Book
Some fears haunt you …
When ballistics and weapons expert Rick Cannon learned the Department of Defense had developed self-steering bullets that show 100% accuracy and make even a gun novice a lethal sniper, he feared they would eventually end up in the wrong hands.
Until they become reality.
That fear comes true when a vet is killed with stolen “smart bullets.” Rick and his FBI task force, nicknamed The White Knights, are soon charged with finding and stopping the killer. Rick enlists the help of the victim’s therapist, Olivia Dobbs, who is well known for her success in counseling military vets with PTSD. But when the killer sets his sights on their key witness, Rick must rely on the skills he learned as a Marine sniper to make sure the next bullet fired isn’t a
kill shot to take Olivia out.
About The Author
SUSAN SLEEMAN is a bestselling and award-winning author of more than 30 inspirational/Christian and clean read romantic suspense books. Readers love her romantic suspense series for the well-drawn characters and edge-of-your-seat action. She graduated from the FBI and local police citizen academies, so her research is spot-on and her characters are real. In addition to writing, Susan also hosts thesuspensezone.com. She has lived in nine states but now calls Oregon home. Her husband is a retired church music director, and they have two beautiful daughters, a very special son-in-law, and an adorable grandson.
To learn more about Susan’s books sign up for her monthly email that includes exclusive excerpts, giveaways, and other goodies. http://www.susansleeman.com/susans-ne…
When she was in Paris, Kimberley Montpetit spent most of her souvenir money at the La Patisserie shops with their beautiful and delicious pastries. She grew up in the fabulous city of San Francisco, loves all things chocolate, and now lives in a small town along the Rio Grande with her engineer husband and three sons.
She once stayed in the haunted tower room at Borthwick Castle in Scotland and didn’t sleep a wink, sailed the Seine in Paris, rode a camel in the ancient world wonder of Petra, shopped the Grand Bazaar in Istanbul, and spent the night in an old Communist hotel in Bulgaria.
Kimberley also writes Award-winning Middle-Grade novels with Scholastic and Young Adult novels with Harpercollins under the name, Kimberley Griffiths Little.
A makeup artist for the Phantom of the Opera with a tragic past. A mysterious man hiding a scar worse than the phantom from the Broadway show.
Linden Adair is a talented makeup artist on the New York Broadway show, Phantom of the Opera, creating the hideous scar for the actor who plays the phantom every night. But nobody knows the deep scars Linden carries after the divorce from her husband, Mark Denly—the famous director of Phantom.
Why didn’t somebody ever tell her that marrying your director was a bad idea, especially when he has a wandering eye?
Desperate to get away after enduring several years of heartache and scars, Linden takes a cross-country trip to visit her best friend in Seattle. While driving on a deserted stretch of highway late at night, she hits a deer and crashes the rental car into a gully outside of Snow Valley, Montana.
A devastatingly handsome stranger with a tow truck rescues Linden and her smashed vehicle, but when she catches sight of him in the light, she’s shocked. Anton Baldwin possess a terrible scar on his face—just like the phantom she created every night for the theater.
But Anton is hiding more than the truth behind his scar, and during a whirlwind week while being recruited for a television show being filmed in Snow Valley, the secrets of this enigmatic man turn her world upside down.
When Anton helps Linden open up to the world around her, Linden wonders if the small town of Snow Valley might hold the magic she needs to heal the scars on her broken heart.
If you like sweet romance and second chance love stories, then you’ll love THE SECRET OF A KISS, A Snow Valley Romance.
Tell us about things you enjoy — what you do for fun or personal satisfaction besides writing?
It’s easy to be a workaholic in this business and your mind is always going, going with ideas and deadlines so to relax I have to leave my workspace completely. My kiddos are super fun and funny. We love to snuggle, make cookies, read books, go to the movies, go out to eat on the weekend, tell jokes, and can’t wait for family reunions with cousins far away at the beach or in the mountains. I also love having lunch with writer friends, or attending writer retreats.
What is the thing you struggle with the most while writing? And how do you defeat it?
The biggest thing I struggle with is to actually get writing for the day. Inertia* is the HARDEST THING TO OVERCOME – IT IS EVIL! Of course, every day 10 new things come up that have to be done right away, or someone calls with a new crisis. Can I please have just ONE DAY where there are no appointments, broken cars, errands, appliances that need fixing, dental appts, shopping, bills to pay, or emergencies, and I can JUST WRITE ALL DAY LONG. It has yet to happen . . . I guess it’s called life!
*Inertia: Overcoming the terror of opening the Word document and begin typing actual words
What are your future projects?
After my trilogy with Harpercollins was completed in 2017, I’m focusing on my sweet adult romance. My Secret Billionaire Romance series has been hugely popular and I have plans for at least two more titles this year. I’m also excited about a secret project I’m doing with Heather Moore Brown that will launch this summer. Gothic Romance! It’s going to be super fun, super awesome, and super romantic!
What is the “message” of your writing?
I love writing clean romance about couples overcoming life’s struggles and griefs. Stories that inspire and uplift while delivering a heart-pounding adventure and swoony romance. It inspires me to know that I can push back against the raw and often insane world we live in and flood reader’s Kindles with good entertainment that people are craving. 😊
Are your characters/stories/scenes, etc. based on anything in real life?
All writers draw from personal experience with loss, disappointment, love, discouragement, and self-doubt. I like writing about characters who are often braver and more courageous than I am when they take their life by the reins and plow full-steam ahead to create the life they dream about.
Have you done anything writing-related, besides actually writing your books, that seemed to get a lot of positive response? Something that encouraged you?
I do a hands-on writing workshop called The Creative Diary that has turned out incredibly successful in schools. In only one hour using my Imagination Box and vivid story imagery, the students have written two complete stories. After leading them part-way through a story that they have to finish, the kids gasp with excitement and begin writing like crazy. It’s awesome to see their enthusiasm and how much they write in just ten minutes at a time – sometimes 2 whole pages! When I invite a few to come up and read their story aloud, I’m always impressed with how terrific and imaginative their stories are.
To view our blog schedule and follow along with this tour visit our Official Event page
An award-winning author, Jordan McCollum can’t resist a story where good defeats evil and true love conquers all. She writes stories about love, lies, secrets and sometimes spies, and she helps writers craft their fiction to make their stories and their prose more engaging.
All four of the novels in her Spy Another Day series were named finalists in the Whitney Awards, a juried prize. Spy by Night is a prequel to the other novels in the series.
“After watching her parents’ marriage crash and burn, CIA operative Talia Reynolds doesn’t believe in “happily ever afters.” Besides, her job entails eighty-hour weeks, juggling a dozen covers and disguises, and tracking down a dangerous Russian spy ring. She hardly has time for romantic entanglements, even if she could let her guard down enough to get close to anyone. But all the rules she lives by could be broken when she meets aerospace engineer Danny Fluker.
Danny moved to Canada for a great job — and a chance to start over after a bad breakup. Dating definitely isn’t in his plans . . . until beautiful and enigmatic Talia throws a perfect storm right in his flight path. When he catches a glimpse of the real woman behind her façade, he has to get to know her better.
Talia has to find a Russian spymaster before he figures out she’s not who she claims, and failing to keep her two lives separate in the process could mean the death of more than just her budding relationship. Danny has to decide if a future with Talia — and facing the past — is worth the risk of getting hurt again. If they can break through the barriers keeping them apart (and avoid a major international catastrophe), they just might have a chance at being happy together.”
Tell us about things you enjoy — what you do for fun or personal satisfaction besides writing?
Besides . . . writing? I don’t understand the question 😉 . Writing really is my favorite. I also like to read, knit and make music.
What is the thing you struggle with the most while writing? And how do you defeat it?
Probably self-doubt. I try to channel it into a drive to make my story better!
What are your future projects?
I’m working on the third book in my Saints & Spies series (different series than Spy by Night) as well as a contemporary YA novel.
What is the “message” of your writing?
I believe that fiction can entertain and change lives. I believe in real characters who grow and change, and that they can help us become better people, too. I want to make the world a brighter place one story at a time.
Are your characters/stories/scenes, etc. based on anything in real life?
The setting of the Spy Another Day series was inspired by a vacation I took to Ottawa as a teenager. My contemporary YA was inspired by a true story (but isn’t that story) about an excellent mountaineer who died while climbing. And then of course everything from expressions to phrases to personalities of people I’ve known shows up in my characters! (If someone is blinking in a way that sends a message? That’s me. I have a whole blink language.)
Have you done anything writing-related, besides actually writing your books, that seemed to get a lot of positive response? Something that encouraged you?
I’ve presented classes on writing craft at several writing conferences. The highlight of these was being the keynote speaker at the American Night Writers’ Northwest Writers Retreat at a beautiful spot on the Washington coast!
To view our blog schedule and follow along with this tour visit our Official Event page
My love of storytelling traces back to my step-mother, who spun wonderful fantasy stories when I was child. I finished my first novel at sixteen. That first attempt was terrible, but taught me quite a bit about story construction. Though I would start numerous other projects in the following years, I wouldn’t actually complete another book for another 21 years.
I wasn’t idle in that time, though. I earned a degree in engineering, married the love of my life, worked as a semi- truck driver crisscrossing the country, moved from Texas to North Dakota and then came back home.
It’s been a fun and interesting journey. I really enjoy engineering, but writing was my first passion, and I’m excited to share it with you.
I currently live in West Texas with my wife and our two adorable (but weird) cats.
“No one knows how human genetics evolved to create Mirrors. No one knows how the evidence of a criminal’s last horrendous act can be confirmed in a single gaze of a child’s silvered eyes. But just because science can’t explain something doesn’t mean it can’t be used, and this gift is simply too valuable to ignore.
Twins Thomas and Ashley Ross have grown up knowing they would be used as Mirrors for the “good” of humanity. When their powers mature at age twelve, they are taken weekly to fulfill their role. By reliving the most heinous crimes from a perpetrators’ perspective, they alone can assure that no innocent people will be executed, and that the worst offenders are not set free due to lack of evidence.
Justice is not without cost, however. Taking on the memories of others is a destructive process, one that quickly consumes the children involved until most take their own lives. As despair threatens to drown Thomas and Ashley, a distant hope keeps them from succumbing: If they can make it to their eighteenth birthday, their contract with the government will be fulfilled. Changing views on the morality of their role threatens to tear them apart, but the twins struggle to cling to each other and try to construct a fragile life above the weekly flood of horrors.
As their work takes it toll, however, a new question emerges: does survival even matter when you’re already broken beyond repair?”
“Why do you think I do this?” Sam demanded suddenly. His voice was hard, almost angry.
“It’s a paycheck.”
Sam shook his head firmly. Even in the dark, Thomas could make out the gesture. “I told you the day I met you that I could make more money doing something else.”
Memory of a conversation floated to the surface, and instinctively Thomas pushed it away before realizing that this time the memory seeking his attention was his own. He remembered sitting in the plane, talking after that first Reflection.
“To make a difference,” Thomas said. “And you don’t think you’d have done that today.”
“Yes, Thomas. Someday I’ll lose this job by caring too much for one of my kids, but it wasn’t today. I’m not going to sacrifice everything when it won’t make any difference.”
For a long moment, Thomas processed that. Then, quietly, he said, “It would have made a difference to me.”
To view our blog schedule and follow along with this tour visit our Official Event page
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