The Price of Secrets by Jacquie May Miller

Thank you, Jean, for inviting me to your blog. I am so excited to share my story with you, and now, the rest of the world. My women’s fiction novel, The Price of Secrets, was released on April 7, 2021.

My journey to publication took a little longer than most—I’m over 60 (not saying how far over)—but I’m as excited as I was when I published my first article in the Nosy Neighborhood News at age eleven. Perhaps that’s an understatement—I’m over the moon! It only took about fifty more years to land a contract with The Wild Rose Press. 

To be fair, I wasn’t trying for the first forty; I was using the left side of my brain managing my business. But about ten years ago, after spending most of my life making a living, I decided to make a life. I started putting words on paper, or cyber paper— scratches in a notebook, notes on loose scraps of paper, ramblings on my computer—that seemed to be forming a story. With the help of my critique group, various writing classes and some wonderful writing conferences, my first draft was transformed into something worthy of publication.

Will revealing her secrets bring her peace or destroy everything she holds dear?

When Jamie Crandall left Seattle for college twenty-five years ago, she was pregnant. Her mother demanded she have an abortion or get the hell out of Seattle and never come back. Jamie chose the latter, using her scholarship to UC Berkeley to disappear with the son she refused to abort. But now, twenty-five years later, everything has changed. Her mother has died, and Jamie is coming home to face the father of her son. Reuniting her son and his father will come at a high price though…Jamie has one more secret left to reveal.

More from Jacquie…

If you’d like to know more about me or my path to publishing The Price of Secrets, please check out my blog, www.jmaydaze.com. You can also follow me on Twitter at @JacquieRMay or find me on Facebook at Jacquie May Miller (facebook.com/Jacquie.m.miller/).

Or was it?  After knocking on many doors, i.e., querying by email and pitching in-person, The Wild Rose Press answered the door. My editor opened it juuuust wide enough to ask me to consider a few changes, then gently closed it again. Her suggestions were correct and after a few revisions, I tried again, and the door swung wide open.

I am now a “Rose” in a garden full of welcoming authors. I couldn’t be happier to share my publication journey with the wonderful people associated with The Wild Rose Press, Inc. Thank you again for inviting me to your blog.

Find Jacquie online:

Twitter

Facebook

Website

COVER REVEAL - Eat Your Heart Out!

Yup, it’s a Cover Reveal!

Welcome, Shirley.

I’m so thrilled to show off my new cover for Eat Your Heart Out, the second book in the series Starting Over.  

Two foodies, Dana and Alex, banter, sauté and tiptoe around each other. Except for the occasional smooch. What’s with that? 

I’m sharing more of Eat Your Heart Out’s details on my blog. Read the blurb and click this link https://midagedating.com/ to read an excerpt. Too soon for links, but I’m looking for ARC readers, so please keep in touch. Publication date coming soon!

 

Thanks to Debbie Taylor for her cover and the team at The Wild Rose Press for all their hard work!

When a tyrant in stilettos replaces her beloved boss, and her ex snags her coveted job, teacher Dana Narvana discovers there are worse things than getting dumped on Facebook. Time for the BFF advice squad, starting with Dana's staunchest ally, Alex—hunky colleague, quipster, and cooking pal extraordinaire. But when the after-hours smooching goes nowhere, she wonders why this grown man won't make up his mind. 

Alex Bethany's new lifestyle gives him the confidence to try online dating. What he craves is a family of his own until a life-altering surprise rocks his world. He knows he's sending Dana mixed messages. Alex panics when he thinks he's blown his chance with his special person. From appetizers to the main course will these two cooking buddies make it to dessert? 

Funny and bittersweet, Dana and Alex's story will have you rooting for them.

Friends Who Move Couches by CJ Zahner

What was your inspiration for Friends Who Move Couches?

Friends Who Move Couches is almost a memoir and is based on a severed friendship I experienced. When I admitted my “breakup” to others, I found most women have lost friendships over the years.

I decided to write a memoir; however, three chapters in, I realized how common and boring my suburban life had been. I decided to spice it up—mostly at the expense of my husband.

My husband and I have been faithful to each for many years, yet Nikki Grey’s husband (to spice it up) is cheating on her. While Nikki mourns her lost friendship, she’s unaware her marriage is slipping away.

Most of Nikki’s friends are true friends in my life. The main characters, Jody and Val, are childhood friends whose personalities are so interestingly opposite, I transplanted them from my childhood to my adult neighborhood. All other good (body-moving) friends are real except Evy and Ellie who are a culmination of all my friends.

One friend, Carol, helped me weather through my friendship losses and has become my best marketing tool. You can see her in my ads.

Find it on Amazon.

Do you find inspiration in your own life for your other writing?

All of my novels are somewhat inspired by my life but Friends Who Move Couches is the closest I can come to a memoir. Many scenes were inspired by true-life events. Because of this, I believe readers can relate to Nikki’s friendship and motherhood struggles.

Carol Crandall is one CJ Zahner's friends who would move a body for her.

Tell us about the book.

Nikki Grey's idea of living dangerously is not wearing a seatbelt, yet calamity always seems to find her.

Friends Who Move Couches is a laugh-out-loud yet insightful story about life, friendship, quieting your inner critic, and surviving rejection.

Married to a workaholic, mothering three rebellious kids, and feuding with neighborhood friends, Nikki Grey forgets her problems one afternoon by smoking marijuana. That blunder ignites a lifelong yet dormant medical condition, and she loses her driver’s license. Suddenly stranded in her home, she’s forced to stare out the window at women who have ostracized her.

Her true friends encourage her to concentrate on her health, but Nikki is her own nemesis. She embarks on a scheme to win back neighborhood friends and plunges into efforts that only end in muddying her reputation. She becomes the butt of neighborhood jokes.

Foolishly, her ache to mend her broken relationships escalates.

Not until her two-timing husband asks her a question that catapults her frivolous suburban life into a tailspin, is she forced to stop reaching for others and stand on her own

If you like novels like Three Wishes by Liane Moriarty, you’ll love following Nikki Grey’s hilarious journey in Friends Who Move Couches as she figures out…

Whom should she keep in her life and whom should she kick to the curb?

Tell us about your experience with the publishing process.

I self-published Friends Who Move Couches but used a small press for an earlier novel. There are advantages and disadvantages to both. Self-publishing is much work. You are the sole driver and the ride can become lonely and tiring. If you chose this route, prepare for a tedious journey.     

Any new projects on the horizon?

I am currently writing the sequel to Friends Who Move Couches and loving every minute of it!

Fnd CJ online:

                CJ_Zahner ~ Instagram  ~  Twitter  ~  LinkedIn ~ Facebook  ~ Goodreads  ~  BookBub 

CJ discusses one of her other books, Dream Wide Awake,

on Book Circle Online:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6H1tqVqFv7M

And let’s end with an Excerpt:

…My first two or three or twenty shots go nowhere. Eight times I miss the ball completely. My inability is embarrassing. The eighty-year-old lady beside me is knocking the names off the balls from her rubber square of the driving range, embarrassing me further. At least her direction faltered. She couldn’t hit a ball down the middle to save her life. She was slicing? Splicing? I’m not sure of the correct term, but she had a wonder ball. You wondered where it was going.

Once, when I am about to swing, she hollers over to me, “Honey, you’re tense. Relax a little.”

At this, the smiling pro agrees. “You are tense.”

He steps up behind me like they do in the movies. He leans close and sets his arms and hands over the top of mine. His chest rubbing against my back and shoulders is disconcerting and yet nice at the same time. While he blah blahs on, I think, gee, this is what it’s like to spend time in another man’s arms. Even if he is gay, it feels fine.

In twenty years, no one has been that close to me other than Mark and one homeless guy who roamed the streets downtown where I worked before the kids were born. Before my stretched, child-bearing hips began knocking lamps off end tables.

The homeless guy’s name was Winky. He had one eye.

I still had it going on back then.

So the smell of Blake the Pro’s cologne as he breathes down the back of my neck seems up-front and personal. A little too sexy for an old married mom. I don’t hear a word he says. At the end of his little speech, he manipulates my fingers into an extremely uncomfortable position on the grip of the club, and all I can remember of any instruction before I swing is that the little old lady told me to relax.

I relax, swing the club, and it sails through the air—the club, not the ball. That’s still perfectly perched on the tee.

Humility overpowers me, and I burst forward out of my little rubber stall and run for the club. The last thing I hear before the eighty-year-old lady’s ball makes a line drive to my temple is Blake the Pro yelling, “Don’t go after your club.”

I regain consciousness and refuse the ambulance. Blake the Pro says he’ll give me a ride home, but once we are riding in the car, he admits he lied. He’s taking me to the hospital. Anger and delirium overpower me. I try to get out of the car at every red light, but I keep rolling down the window instead of opening the door.

Once we arrive at the emergency room, he does all the talking. He strolls into the room with me as if some of this was his fault.

I don’t dare to admit I am a hopeless born loser.

We make glib chat in the sterile silver and white room while we wait for the doctor. I encourage him to go home several times, but he says he’ll wait for Mark. Finally, an hour later, the door opens and in walks—you got it—Doctor Death.

“Well, hello again, Ms. Grey.”

I look at Blake the Pro. The twinkle in his eye has re-sparked. Is he laughing inside?

“Do this often?” Blake the Pro’s teeth are so straight and white that it strikes me. I may have found the perfect match for Evy.

Mark walks in and Blake the Pro apologizes but, oddly, stays. Maybe the look on Mark’s face as he traipses through the door arouses Blake’s curiosity.

Furious, irate, and enraged with me, Mark wanders off on a teeth-gritting tirade, ranting about some lunch opportunity with a client being rushed.

Embarrassedly, I counter, “Do you think I got hit in the head just to ruin your lunch?”

“You’re always getting yourself into these fixes,” he grumbles.

My mind whirls. I can’t respond calmly. It’s hard concentrating with Blake the Pro and Doctor Death listening. I become enraged. I progress to screaming.

“I’m not doing these things on purpose!”

Then, Doctor Death enters my ring of fire.

“You passed out,” he doesn’t yell, but his tone closes in on disgust. “I’m adding the time to your license suspension.”

No, no, no. That will take me past Christmas.

“I took a blow to the head,” I yell.

“Nikki, lower your voice,” Mark chides.

“Doesn’t matter.” Doctor Death is heartless. “You lost consciousness.”

I pick up a tall metal IV holder off the floor. Mark tries to pry it from my fingers, but this time my grip is firm. I step toward Doctor Death.

“How about you run for the door, I swing this with all my might and knock you on your ass. Let’s see if you lose consciousness.”

Clearly, I have more than just friend problems.

 

Heart Storms by N. Christine Samuelson

Welcome to Visiting Authors, today N. Christine Samuelson! Tell us about what you write.

I write novels, poetry, and some short stories I’m starting to write again.--

Before Heart Storms, I’ve published two previous novels, Eternal Seas and Echoes of Love—both deal with eternal bonds of love that transcend time. Past lives and mystical elements are woven into contemporary characters and stories of love and relationship—the perils, fears, obstacles and courage to overcome, the power of the bonds of love in many forms.

Do you find inspiration in your own life for your writing?

Most of my inspiration is from life experiences and the people I’ve known from all walks of life. They, and the myriad places I’ve lived and traveled to are the springboard for my imagination—so many stories to tell.

Her latest release…Heart Storms…

Heart Storms…

When three people’s lives collide in a perfect storm of heartbreak and ruin, betrayal and love, will they be destroyed or transformed by their fate? One woman and two men are drawn to coastal South Carolina to an oceanfront Victorian B & B inn. Jade Armstrong is newly divorced and left with nothing by her treacherous ex-husband. Gabriel Montoro is reeling from a cheating wife. Rick Stirling owns the inn and has suffered a devastating personal loss. Through work and friendship, their inner conflicts extend to each other while vying for the need for survival, healing, attraction and love.

None of them seek love or relationship, but as they move into and through the emotional storm of their lives, destiny brings them together in an extraordinary way. A charming oceanfront inn complete with mystical elements lifts the characters’ spirits and helps them on their journeys. Their passionate triangle must be broken for them to move on with their lives, but who ends up with whom, or do they, and when?

Find Heart Storms: Amazon ~ Barnes/Noble-Nook ~ Apple Books ~ Kobo

Now a little more about N. Christine with a SPEED ROUND:

Where can you find N. Christine online? ~ Website ~ Twitter ~ Facebook ~ Amazon Author ~ BookBub ~ Goodreads ~ Instagram ~ Newsletter Sign Up ~

Any words of advice for fellow writers in the trenches?

Photo of the beach where I walk that inspired the oceanfront setting for the inn in Heart Storms.

Writing and publishing are hard roads to pursue. But If you love to write, if it’s your passion, never give up. Envision coming to the end of your life and looking back—would you be okay with giving it up? If you’d regret it, then carry on.

Now for an excerpt!

Jade wandered through her days looking for clues to why and how the end came. Well-meaning friends tried to encourage her, but their words were lies because love did not conquer all, and time had not healed her. In her world, the road to hell wasn’t paved with gold but with a golden boy who took her straight there—to a hell of a life. And when all those doors slammed shut, God didn’t open a window, ‘the devil’ did.

Devlin. Jade used to love his name. It was unusual, strong and spoke of his Irish heritage. She assumed the man, Devlin Donoghue, would be the same—as honorable as a hero in medieval times fighting to the death for his woman, family, and freedom. But Devlin was the antithesis of good things. … His name was unspeakable now, like poison on her tongue. So instead of seeing ‘Devlin’ written on the paper, …she saw only ‘Devil.’ Now there’s a name perfectly suited to him. Since that day, Jade referred to him only when necessary, and only as ‘the devil’—the intentional cause of pain and destruction, the epitome of evil.

***

Gabriel had nowhere to run or hide from the relentless demons howling through his life. They made demands of his days he couldn’t fulfill. No matter how good he was or acted, his life seemed predestined for trouble and heartbreak. In trying to change his situation, worse circumstances arose. He ran from a culture he loved and respected but had also caused pain and torment. The deepest truth, though, simmered underneath the obvious facts—Gabriel knew he’d never have a life of goodness, of love and family. Those things were fairytales in books and movies. He’d never witnessed those good things in real life and, since Consuela, for sure they didn’t happen to people like him.

***

The destruction of Jade’s life by a devious, conniving husband didn’t happen to people like her. She’d always been a loving, hard-working, devoted daughter and wife who deserved better than what she got.

At twenty-seven, instead of living the dream they planned, Jade lived alone in a studio apartment, in a nightmare where questions screamed through her dreams. Where are you… How could you do this? Why did you do it? Every day, rage tumbled down her life like a waterfall. Come back… fix this… make it right! Her world stood still while a vortex of depression sucked out her life force, replaced by a new emotion—hate. With all the good she was and did, she received the opposite in return. But for all the agony and loss the devil wrought, he didn’t get an ounce of it back. As far as Jade saw, only good things went back to him. How is that fair in the laws of the universe, the eyes of God, or in the karmic balance of right and wrong? Jade decided if those things wouldn’t balance the scales of justice, she would. She’d pay back ‘the devil.’ Retribution and vengeance—previously unknown concepts in her world—now thundered through her every waking moment as she vowed revenge.