Under a Paper Moon.
use when I have a contest
The votes have been tallied and I’m thrilled to let you know that both Rogue’s Son and Hawke’ Nest have made it to the final round and are 2015 RONE Finalists!
Thank you for taking the time to vote, not once, but twice! You guys made all the difference.
In September I’ll be going to the 2015 RONE Awards in Palm Springs, CA! I’m honored to be in the company of such talented writers!
I’m so happy to have Patricia and Stephanie as my guests today! Co-authors of The Friendship Star Quilt, the second book in their series, A Stitching Post Romance. I absolutely love the cover!
It might have been Cinderella’s fault that “stepmother” became paired with the word “wicked” and stepparents in general got a bad rap. Learning to live with a new spouse is a major adjustment, but getting a new parent or child often presents a long, rocky road to family harmony. Still, many couples and their children make it work, and in some cases they find themselves richer for the experience.
Anne Brown longs for a family of her own, but believes she’ll never have one. She’s running from her abusive ex-husband and is afraid of putting Brad and his daughter Angie in danger. She doesn’t want to tie herself to the community she’s grown to love, and where she’s started to feel valued. What she doesn’t realize is that this gentle man offers her greater protection and security than she could ever provide for herself. Family, especially one with close ties like Brad’s, give one strength in rough times.
The Stitching Post Quilt Shop is the setting for the weekly gathering of a group of women who come to sew, but leave with lasting friendships. The first book in the series, The Calico Heart, was nominated for a RONE award for Best Contemporary Book of 2013. Patricia Kiyono and Stephanie Michels are pleased to announce the release of the second book in the series, The Friendship Star Quilt.
Blurb:
Anne Brown loves her job at The Stitching Post Quilt Shop in Grandville, Michigan, but she keeps a suitcase packed so she can leave at a moment’s notice. Living under the radar, she longs for a normal life, but settles for listening to family stories told by the friendly ladies of the quilting club who meet at the shop on Tuesday evenings. When she meets Brad, the handsome band director of an area high school and his adorable daughter, Anne begins to hope for a happily ever after of her own. But someone has far different plans.
Brad Carmichael is juggling the demands of his job as band director at Rivertown High School with trying to be a better father to his daughter. When Brad is late picking Jennie up from a birthday party, the pretty young clerk from the local quilt shop comes to his rescue. Kind-hearted and talented, Anne becomes a vital part of Brad and Jennie’s lives. But her past threatens to destroy their relationship.
About the Authors
Patricia Kiyono retired from public school teaching, and is now an adjunct faculty 
member at Grand Valley State University, where she instructs future teachers. Born in Japan, she lives in southwest Michigan with her husband, not far from their five children and nine grandchildren. In addition to writing, she enjoys sewing, scrapbooking, playing in local bands and orchestras, and taking care of grandchildren.
Stephanie Michels considers herself a “Jill of All Trades.” During her corporate career, she worked as a computer trainer, advertising copywriter, personnel agent, radio DJ, magazine columnist, and a financial planner among other things. She recently left those behind in order to focus on writing full time.
Raised in Michigan, she lived in South Carolina, Missouri, and Germany, before returning to the Mitten State to raise her family. When she isn’t writing, you can usually find her reading or spending time with family, friends, and Beta Sigma Phi sisters.
The Friendship Star Quilt is her second novel with writing partner, Patricia Kiyono.
BUY LINKS:
The Friendship Star Quilt is available at Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and Smashwords, as well as other ebook outlets.
GIVEAWAY!
Stephanie Michels is giving away a $5 Amazon gift card at each stop of our blog tour to a random commenter. To win, please leave a comment about how important family ties are to you! And to increase your chances, visit author Diane Burton’s blog tomorrow!
Hi Everyone!
Well, the Blog Hop is over for this year. Congrats to Catherine Chant who won my giveaway!
Thanks to all of you who took the time to stop by and leave a comment! See you soon!
10 Days of Giveaways-Gardening Tips-Recipes-and more!
Plus GRAND PRIZE you’ll be digging to win!
How it will work:
Authors participating will post their giveaway, gardening tip, recipe or both on their website, beginning April 7th and leaving their contest open through the 16th. You will have 10 days to enter each individual author contest and then submit your entry for the grand prize!! To WIN the GRAND PRIZE, you MUST visit EACH and EVERY author on the hop.
GRAND PRIZE: Kindle Fire or Nook (winner’s choice) along with a $25 gift card for the same.
SECOND PRIZE: $25 gift card.
My winner, (continental US, only) will receive an autographed copy of my sweet contemporary romance, Keeper of My Heart and some cool swag.
My Winner, (outside the continental US,) will receive their choice of one of my e-books.
Sealed With a Kiss – Keeper of My Heart – Rogue’s Son
TO ENTER
1. LEAVE A COMMENT. Make sure to leave your e-mail address in the comment section so we can contact you if you win!
2. SUBSCRIBE TO MY NEWSLETTER. Just click on the words, Darcy’s Newsletter, in the side bar at the right. It’ll take you to the sign up page. 🙂
3. LIKE my Facebook AUTHOR PAGE.
That’s it!
Have fun!
It’s easy. 🙂 And I didn’t plant a thing!Okay, here’s what you need!
1. A one or two-hook hanging bird feeder. (I use the kind that sticks in the ground and hang two cylinder feeders off of it.
2. Wild bird seed – a mix of mostly sunflower seeds
Then: Put the hanging bird feeder in your garden or flower bed. Needs mostly sun. Fill the bird feeders with bird seed.
That’s it. Now sit back and enjoy the variety of birds that’ll come to your feeder. Seeds will naturally drop to the ground, germinate and soon little green shoots will appear. The sunflower seeds are fast growers and you’ll have these beautiful flowers through the fall. I do this every year and am rewarded with this glorious abundance of small sunflowers.
Follow This link to get to the other sites! The list of authors will be at the bottom of Dianne’s Page!
Here it is! Lemon and grapefruit body wash, moisturizing bath bar, 
gluten free organic body lotion, pomegranate and acai berry tea, cherry and almond biscuits, Godiva truffle bars and my sweet romance, Keeper of My Heart!
Thank you again for all of your spa basket suggestions!
And congrats to Carol Umfer, who won the drawing! Carol chose my latest release, contemporary western romance, Rogue’s Son!
Hi Friends,
I’m putting together items for a Spa Basket that I’m donating to my local author group as a giveaway at our winter retreat. For the next two weeks, I’ll be taking your ideas on what needs to go in the basket. I welcome all suggestions, from the obvious to the unexpected.
By the way, this is not the basket, but I wanted you to have something to “fill”! 🙂 I’m planning on buying a white basket and when I find it, I’ll post it.
Also, I’ll be giving away a copy of one of my ebooks to one lucky commenter. I just need two things from you:
1. Leave your suggestion in the comment section.
2. Subscribe to my newsletter! [The button is in the right column. 🙂 See it?]
You can check out my ebooks below.
Sealed With a Kiss: Prequel to Keeper of My Heart
Thanks for your help, feel free to share this post and I look forward to hearing from you.
I’m thrilled to have, dear friend and fellow Author Diane Burton as my guest today. She’s here to tell us about her Romantic Suspense, One Red Shoe. Take it away Diane!
Reinventing One’s Self
Jane Pauley was on the Today Show last week. While getting my coffee and trying to pry open my eyelids, something she said caught my attention. The words “reinventing herself.” Whoa. I can identify with that.
I always wanted to be a teacher. When we were little, my younger sister and I played “school” and I was the teacher—that’s when we weren’t playing “church” and I was the priest. But I digress. Being the oldest of seven, I was a natural teacher. I helped Mom with the little ones and gradually taught them new skills. Eventually, I went to college and became a real teacher. When my own children came along, I was a stay-at-home mom who taught her own kids. (Not home schooling, though.) I did some substitute teaching when they were in school, but never went back full time.
When my husband was downsized in the late 1980s, I looked for work. Going back into the classroom meant going back to school for an advanced degree and recertifying. I didn’t want to be a substitute again. So I looked for something I could do. I was pretty good with computers, word processing, some data inputting, very little but some spreadsheet experience. What job did I get? Inventory clerk for a flute store. All because I happened to see a little sign on the counter when I went in to buy reeds for my son’s saxophone. I was the only non-musician in a company that not only sold flute music in the local store but worldwide through their catalog. Lest you think I was a complete dunce regarding music, I have to say my dad was an opera and classical music buff. I grew up listening to the Metropolitan Opera on radio every Saturday afternoon. Frankly, I wanted to listen to Tiger Baseball. But that’s another story.
They say when a door closes another opens. Or are you supposed to open a window? Maybe I’m mixing metaphors. At any rate, whenever I’ve needed a job, I’ve taken existing skills (like word processing, data entry, and spreadsheets) and found a position where I could use them. My last was with an oil and gas exploration company where I discovered the cure for insomnia, reading oil and gas leases.
In my romantic suspense One Red Shoe my heroine is an elementary teacher (well, they say write what you know. LOL) and she’s stuck in a rut. When she was orphaned at thirteen, her older brothers came home to take care of her. As she approaches the big THREE-O, they still treat her like she’s a kid. She yearns for adventure and she finds it in writing mystery stories. Not content to live vicariously through her own heroine, she’s about to set off on her own adventure. She gets more than she bargained for.
Blurb for One Red Shoe:
Wannabe writer rescues wounded spy while risking her heart.
Daria Mason’s life is too predictable. Nothing ever happens in her small Iowa town where everybody knows everybody else. But when she travels to New York City looking for a little excitement, she never expects to bring home a wounded spy.
From the moment agent Sam Jozwiak steals intel vital to US security from a Russian Mafia kingpin, Murphy’s Law takes over. No matter how he covers his tracks, the kingpin’s assassins find him. What’s worse than getting shot in the butt? Accepting help from an Iowa tourist.
Sam and Daria flee cross country with the assassins right behind them. Sharing danger and excitement—and a few kisses—with Sam soon has Daria convinced he’s the man for her. He thinks she’ll be better off once he’s out of her life for good. With their lives on the line, can she convince him they belong together?
Excerpt from One Red Shoe:
Daria started running up the stairs to the fifth floor, hoping she would get to the restroom in time. As a teacher who couldn’t leave second-graders alone, she’d trained herself to hold it until scheduled breaks. But she should never have waited this long. Despite the cramping in her legs, she put on a burst of speed. As she passed the door to the fourth floor, she realized the stairs had gotten darker. She looked up to see if a light was out. On the half-way landing stood a man…pointing a gun at her.
She nearly wet her pants.
“What are you doing here?” the man demanded as he whisked his gun out of sight.
Daria froze. She clutched the rail with one hand, her bag of books with the other. She suddenly understood the line from Romancing the Stone because, just like Joan Wilder, Daria was paralyzed from the neck up. The rest of her wasn’t moving, either.
“Where are you going?” He had a faint accent. British, maybe. His eyes flickered with impatience. Hard glacial blue eyes. His voice, cultured with a hint of menace, frightened her more.
His shoes were level with her eyes. Shiny brown Florsheims. His jeans were new with distinct creases from being folded. They brushed the tops of his polished dress shoes.
Brown Shoes came down three steps and halted. He reached inside his black light-weight jacket and Daria prayed it wasn’t for a gun. That made no sense. Why didn’t he use the one he’d tucked behind his back? He pulled out a leather folder and flipped it open. A gold badge. He was the police. Daria sagged in relief.
With a quick motion, Brown Shoes flipped the folder closed and stuffed it back in his pocket. “What is your business?” He tapped his brown shoe impatiently.
Her throat began to close in fear from his anger.
One Red Shoe is available at:
The Wild Rose Press: http://www.wildrosepublishing.com/maincatalog_v151/index.php?main_page=index&manufacturers_id=1082
Amazon: http://amzn.com/B00FDXRHZA
And wherever ebooks are sold.
About the author:
Diane Burton combines her love of mystery, adventure, science fiction and romance into writing romantic fiction. Besides the science fiction romance Switched series, she is the author of The Pilot, the first book in a series about strong women on the frontier of space. One Red Shoe is her first romantic suspense. She is also a contributor to the anthology How I Met My Husband. Diane and her husband live in Michigan. They have two children and two grandchildren.
For more info and excerpts from her books, visit Diane’s website: http://www.dianeburton.com
Connect with Diane Burton online
Blog: http://dianeburton.blogspot.com/
Twitter: http://twitter.com/dmburton72
Facebook: http://facebook.com/dianeburtonauthor
Goodreads: Diane Burton Author
Pinterest: http://pinterest.com/dmburton72/
Diane is giving away a $20 eGift Card from Amazon or Barnes & Noble to a lucky commenter. For extra chances, please follow the link below to use Rafflecopter:
http://dianeburton.blogspot.com/2014/01/one-red-shoe-worldwide-release.html
10 Days of Giveaways-Gardening Tips-Recipes-and more!
Plus GRAND PRIZE you’ll be digging to win!
How it will work:
Authors participating will post their giveaway, gardening tip, recipe or both on their website, beginning April 10th and leaving their contest open through the 19th. You will have 10 days to enter each individual author contest and then submit your entry for the grand prize!! To win the GRAND PRIZE, you must visit each and every author on the hop.
GRAND PRIZE: Kindle Fire or Nook (winner’s choice) along with a $25 gift card for the same.
My winner, (continental US, only) will receive an autographed copy of my sweet contemporary romance, Keeper of My 
Heart, and some surprise swag.
Outside the continental US, I will give the winner, an e-book copy of Keeper of My Heart.
TO ENTER
1. Leave a comment. Make sure to leave your e-mail address so we can contact you if you win!
2. Follow/subscribe to my blog/website.
3. Like my Facebook page.
Number 2. and 3. above is easily accessed from this page! 🙂
Fresh herbs can be expensive so why not plant a small garden of your own. Herbs are very easy to grow and also do well in pots. Plant in full sun, water and enjoy. Perennials will take off the second year. Make the round bed 3′ to 4′ in diameter. This plan shows only perennials but you can substitute annuals where desired. Some annuals to consider are: Basil, Rosemary, Parsley and Marjoram.
Harvest in the morning or early evening as the heat of the sun drives the oils/flavor in the leaves to the base of the plant. 🙂
Fill a tall decorative clear glass bottle (Pier 1 has a nice selection) with white vinegar. Cut a handful of fresh chives while in bloom (the bloom is round and purple) and add to the vinegar. Set in your pantry or kitchen cabinet for one week. The vinegar will take on the pale lavender of the bloom and the subtle scent of onion. Serve the chive vinegar with olive oil on your favorite summer salads.
You can use most any cooking herb to make vinegars. Tarragon and Rosemary are good choices. For variety add green and black peppercorns for extra spice and flavor.
Sue Webster is the winner of an ebook copy of Keeper Of My Heart! Congrats Sue!
TRR Year-End Splash (Yes!) Party
My question is up today. It’s #10. If you’ve read Keeper of My Heart, log in and answer for a chance to win!
More than 400 Prizes up for grabs during the entire event! Grand prize is a $100 Gift Certificate!
You need to register and be logged in at TRR before you can play the game.
Darcy Flynn 