Guest Blog, Giveaway & Book Review ~ The Christmas Promise - Sue Moorcroft

 

I'd like to welcome Author Sue Moorcroft to my blog today. Sue has her new book out The Christmas Promise, so I invited her to come a long and be a guest on my blog. I've also read and reviewed the book and have shared it below. Her blog post is an interesting one about something that happens just twice a year. Please read on .....................

TITLE - The Christmas Promise

AUTHOR - Sue Moorcroft

PURCHASE LINK - click here

BOOK BLURB from Amazon

‘I love all of Sue Moorcroft’s books!’ KATIE FFORDE

Countdown to Christmas with your new must-have author, as you step into the wonderful world of bespoke hat-maker Ava Bliss…

For Ava Bliss, it’s going to be a Christmas to remember…

On a snowy December evening, Sam Jermyn steps into the life of bespoke hat maker Ava. Sparks fly, and not necessarily the good ones.

Times are tough for Ava – she’s struggling to make ends meet, her ex-boyfriend is a bully, and worst of all, it’s nearly Christmas.

So when Sam commissions Ava to make a hat for someone special, she makes a promise that will change her life. She just doesn’t know it yet…

Curl up with this gorgeous, festive read – the perfect treat for fans of Katie Fforde, Carole Matthews and Trisha Ashley.




MY REVIEW

I'm not a big Christmas lover. I hate the commercialism of it all. I do however love the Family closeness of the day itself (when I'm not working). One thing I do love though is a cosy Christmas novel, and this book was no exception. 

This book centres around Ava Bliss, who I instantly warmed to. She lives with her best friend Izz, who has a successful job, whereas life isn't going too well for Ava. Ava is trying unsuccessfully to have her couture Millinery business taken seriously, and is struggling financially. 

This book has several different aspects to it. There is the modern day crime of Sextortion, which to me was well researched; then there is the subject of terminal illness (several tears shed here); then there is the world of the couture milliner. I learnt a lot about millinery from the book, and again it shows a lot of research must have gone into this book.;

So many different emotions were packed into this book and I couldn't put it down, reading it until the early hours.

I won't say what the Christmas Promise was for fear of spoiling the story, so you'll have to find out for yourself, however it's a promise you'll want to be a part of.






GUEST BLOG by Sue Moorcroft. 

The Changing of the Clocks

Did you have an extra hour in bed on Saturday night? Or add an extra hour to your day on Sunday?In the UK, as in many parts of the world, twice a year ‘our clocks are changed’. Now it will be lighter earlier in the mornings but darkness will come sooner in the evenings. To celebrate this official beginning to wintertime I thought I’d share a few facts:

The UK has just left British Summertime and we’re now on Greenwich Mean Time.

The other name for British Summertime is Daylight Saving Time.

As if to celebrate the onset of Winter along with the clocks, The Christmas Promise entered the Kindle Top 100 on Sunday morning!

We’ll get British Summertime back at 1am on March 26th 2017. (I’m looking forward to this already. I’m a summertime person).

Changing the clocks was first suggested by William Willett in 1907 and he campaigned for his scheme to be implemented until his death in 1915. Germany went first, in April 1916, and we followed suit in May after passing The Summertime Act 1916. WWI was underway, of course, and making use of daylight helped the economy.

The first short story I sold was to The People’s Friend in 1996 and concerned the clocks going forward in spring. It just took one person to forget to change his watch and I had a plot! Luckily, mobile phones that change automatically were not in every pocket at that time.

 

 

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GUEST BLOG POST by Grace Macdonald, Author of The Ruby Ring

The Ruby Ring by Grace Macdonald

A spellbinding timeslip story of two young women, each with a secret. A ring unites them, a century divides them. An international bestseller, set in a seaside town in Devon in Victorian times and the present day.

After a whirlwind romance, Laura Marchmont marries the charming Charles Haywood. Leaving her old life behind, she struggles to fit into Charles’s world, and to be accepted by his young daughters from his first marriage. Laura also hides a terrible secret from her new husband, which casts a shadow over her life. Then, she discovers the story of a young girl who lived more than a century before. Laura is compelled to uncover the fate of Mary Rose.

1886. When Mary Rose Marchmont’s widowed father remarries it signals the end of her childhood. A series of tragic events leads Mary Rose to be accused of a shocking crime, after which her life will never be the same again.

A moving family story of history, romance and secrets.

Grace Macdonald is a pen name of the hugely popular romantic fiction author Sophie King. 

WHY MOVING TO A NEW PLACE BOOSTED MY WRITING IDEAS by GRACE MACDONALD     

Seven years ago, my second husband and I moved out of London to the south west. It was a huge step for me as I had always lived within spitting distance of a tube station. I’ll never forget driving down the motorway, thinking ‘what are we doing?’ In fact, we had a deal that if, after five years, one of us hated it, we would move.
In fact, we loved it from day one.

I’d always wanted to live by the sea. My childhood summer holidays were spent in my Godmother’s cottage in the Isle of Wight. I wrote poetry in those days (something I’ve recently taken up again) and I clearly remember taking inspiration from the woody landslip below her cottage; the downs above, studded with gorse bushes; and the golden sands with little inlets.

We don’t have a great deal of sand on our beach unless the tide is out. But it’s a glorious place to be. I can breathe properly for the first time in my life. The scenery is stunning. And I run every morning along the front with our dog.

I also write differently.

Almost from the first time I sat down at my computer in our new house, I found that the sea crept into every story. It had become so much a part of my new life that it also stepped into my plot. My heroines walk on the beach as I do. They swim in the sea like me. And they get lost in the hills as I have.

You don’t need to move somewhere different. You could just visit it. Another writer once said to me years ago, that if I got an invitation to go somewhere different, I should take it – even if it was just another town down the road. ‘It gives you a new world to write about,’ she told me.

Very true. Twice a month, my husband and I go out for day trips, partly to explore our new part of the world. And partly for my plot. I also buy postcards when I’m in a new place and stick them on the walls of my study.

One of my children worked in Vietnam for three years. I visited her twice and then found that one of my heroines ended up there. It’s no coincidence that The Ruby Ring is set on the coast and that the heroine’s house is above some old lime quarries. It’s one of my favourite daily walks.

Nor do you don’t need to spend too much money to go to another place. A bus or train ride to somewhere you haven’t been to before can be just as effective for inspiration. Sometimes the actual journey is more interesting than the destination. We went on a £3 tram ride a few months ago through a nature reserve. To be honest, I didn’t really care for the marshes around us. But I loved the tram and its quaint furnishings. That too found its way into a book.

So book your tickets now! If you plan your journey carefully, you’ll end up with a great trip from page one through to the final paragraph. Bon voyage!

Get your copy here

REVIEW TO FOLLOW AT A LATER DATE. 

BOOK TOUR, GUEST POST & GIVEAWAY - Justice Perverted by Dee Wilbur

With my well known love of Texas, I just had to get involved in this cozy mystery from Dee Wilbur

 

Justice Perverted by Dee Wilbur

 

Follow the tour here

 

Virtual Book Tour Dates: 1/13/14 - 2/10/14

Series: The Richmond Saga

Genres: Mystery, Cozy Mystery, Medical Mystery, Beach Read

 

Blurb:

Sandy dozed intermittently with her head on Jon’s shoulder as they headed west on IH10. She thought about the changes that had just occurred in her life: her father’s death, quitting her teaching job in New Orleans, and packing all her belongings into the moving truck she was riding in. Her mind raced to the changes that were to come: her marriage to Jon, moving to the town of Richmond, Texas, and the effect that the community would have on her—and she would have on the community. She could not have foreseen the arrest of Jon’s partner for murder, the teenage marijuana ring, or the complete perversion of justice about to take place.

 Excerpts:

“What’s the bit about everybody wanting to know about his autopsy? His wife called last night and demanded an autopsy. The sheriff himself came in this morning and wanted to know if there was an autopsy. It looks to me like we had a drunk driver who failed to make a curve. I mean there was Jack Daniels all over the cab and him. Lordy, it smelled like a distillery there. We had them take the body down to Galveston during the night. The University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston does all our autopsies. I don’t know how far behind they are so it might take weeks.”

Jon grimaced. “What’s the matter, Jon?” asked the Chief Deputy.

“I think this may be a murder. You may need to speed them up on that autopsy.”

At that moment a young clerk brought in a lab slip to the chief deputy. “A tech from the hospital just brought this over. He said he thought it was important.”

“What is it?” scowled the Chief Deputy.

“It’s a blood alcohol level on Duane Belchner.”

  

Buy Link:

Amazon US - Click here
Amazon UK - Click here

Guest blog post

In all four of their books, A Jealous God, Justice Perverted, A Foolish Plucking, and Ravening Wolves, Dee Wilbur has set the stories in the small Texas town of Richmond. Richmond is an old town as Texas towns go, being founded in 1821. It was named for Richmond, Virginia, and not as some have contended for Richmond, England. Moses Austin received a land grant from the Mexican government to colonize land in Texas along the Brazos River. He died before he could bring any colonists. His son Stephen F. Austin brought the first three hundred settlers on the Schooner  Lively from New Orleans. They sailed up the Brazos as far as it was navigable. This was about a mile from present day Richmond at the site of a large bend in the Brazos. There first settlement was a wooden fort built at the bend in the river. They cleverly named it Fort Bend—that is still the name of the county with Richmond as the county seat. 

Many of the old families, the Old Three Hundred as they are called, still live in the area and form much of the social elite. Many of the families are quite wealthy and have used their wealth to aid the less fortunate in the county. The George Foundation, the sixth largest in Texas, has donated millions of dollars in support of the county library, the hospital system, parks, and in scholarships for county students. The old George Ranch has become the George Historical Park. It also houses a working observatory with a large telescope and a Challenger Learning Center. It is managed by the Fort Bend Museum. Large numbers of school kids visit the ranch each year for demonstrations of horseback riding, horse shoeing, cattle branding, and other daily activities of Western life. 

Richmond had the same mayor for over sixty years until he died recently in his early 90’s. Not to worry though, his wife was appointed to fill his term and is now running for re-election. His campaign slogan had always been, “If you don’t like the way I’m doing things, vote for somebody else.” People rarely did. 

One of Richmond’s historic claims to fame was its “red light” district known as Mud Alley, the street immediately adjacent to the railroad tracks that run through the middle of town. These ladies of the night were non-political serving the men of both Sam Houston’s troops and Santa Anna’s army as they came through Richmond on their way to the final battle at San Jacinto that won Texas independence. 

Richmond was the home of Mirabeau B. Lamar, the second president of the Republic of Texas, and founder of the public schools in Texas, The local school district is the Lamar Consolidated Independent School District. Jane Long, called the Mother of Texas, was the first white woman to give birth in Texas. She ran a boarding house in Richmond. Both are buried in Morton Cemetery in Richmond. This is also the site of the first Masonic burial west of the Mississippi.

 

As part of the marketing plan for the Richmond series, Dee Wilbur does tours of sites mentioned in the books for book clubs, ladies’ groups, etc. The tours are free. The only requirement is that one has to have read one of the books. The two hour tours end with a dutch-treat lunch at the Italian Maid Restaurant in downtown Richmond. This is the favorite restaurant of the main characters in the stories. 

Why did we choose Richmond? It’s a colorful town with a lot of history, but mainly because Charlie, the Wilbur of Dee Wilbur, lives there.

 

About the Authors

Beatrice Dee Pipes and Charles Wilbur Yates, Jr. write under the pen name Dee Wilbur, a combination of their middle names. This is their second work of fiction. A Texas native, Dee Pipes grew up in a small Texas town. Her degree from Rice University is a B.A. in English. She currently runs a company that helps other companies with marketing, project management, and other tasks. She has been married to her husband Bryan for thirty years. Also a native Texan, Charles Yates, Jr., was also reared in a small Texas town. He graduated from Rice University in Houston with a B.A. and Ph.D. in Biology. He received the M.D. degree from the University of Texas South-western Medical School in Dallas. He has been married to his wife Sally for forty-five years. They have four adult sons and six grandchildren. He now tends his garden in Richmond, Texas.  

Author Links:

Website - Click here

Amazon Author Page - Click here

Facebook - Click here 
 

Goodreads - Click here

 

Giveaway:

The authors are giving away two print copies and two e-book copies of Justice Perverted! Print copies for US entrants only and e-books for international entrants. Enter through Rafflecopter.

 
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AUTHOR POST & AUDIO BOOK GIVEAWAY - Do Writers Need a Writer's Group? by Rita Plush.

Welcoming once again, Rita Plush to my blog. Today she is guesting by writing a small piece for other writers. Plus she has kindly offered to giveaway five audiobook copies of her book "Lily Steps Out"

Do Writers Need a Writer’s Group?

By

Rita Plush

An emphatic Yes! is my answer and I’ll tell you why.

We writers fall in love with our words, they’re our darlings, our children. And like our children we often can’t see their faults. We need others to point out their missteps and blunders. A writers’ group can pick up on where we may have gone astray with our darlings, and if we have put down on the page all the reader needs to know.

I realized I had a problem with clarity when my group discussed my short story, “The Professor.”

“Why?” they wanted to know, did a character sound more like an English professor than the construction worker he was.

“Because he was an English professor and lost his job,” I explained.

I may have known that and then some, but because I hadn’t included the information in the narrative or in my character’s internal thoughts, my group was stumped, taken away from the story line, rather than being drawn into it.

Writers of fiction and non-fiction, authors of essays, poetry and plays, we meet every week in a local eatery to have a bite and discuss our work.

Out of a core group of six we rotate leaders, each member heading up the meeting for two months. “Any news?” the leader will ask getting things started, meaning has anyone been published or rejected (alas, there are always more of the latter than the former), heard about an article or a request for submissions that might be of interest to the others?

“Who’s reading?” is the next matter of business. Not every writer reads every week but those who do bring double spaced copies of their work for each attendee. As we follow along the text, we jot down comments on dialogue, character, plot, and then have an open discussion. Remarks run the gamut, and though we give our general impressions, we focus on specifics. If we like a bit of dialogue, we say why. If we think it’s unnatural for a character to speak as he or she does, as in the case of the Keats’ quoting construction man, we weigh in on that. The plot is sagging? We suggest ways of shoring it up.  

Has anyone ever left in a huff because they didn’t like their critique? Once in a while. Have folks come once or twice and not again? All the time. Writers try us out—we post notices in our local newspapers—and decide we’re not for them. But we also have writers who with us for months, years even, sharpening their skills, sharing the pain and pleasure of the writing life. 

Our members’ original plays have been performed at libraries and community centers, their short verse has appeared in The New York Times, and it’s not uncommon for a short story to find its way to a literary journal—does The Alaska Quarterly Review ring a bell? A novel has been published, and as recently as May, 2013 the short story collection Alterations was put into print by Penumbra Publishing. So if you happen to be in Bayside, New York on a Tuesday night at 6:30, stop in to The Terrace Diner. You’ll find us in the back, at our usual table, having a little dinner, and reading our work.   

 

Links for Lily Steps Out

Amazon US - Click here

Barnes and Noble - Click here

 

Links for Alterations

Amazon US - Click here

Barnes and Noble - Click here

 

 

 

 

 

 

About The Author

Rita Plush lives and writes in Queens, New York. Rita is an interior designer, writer, lecturer and teacher of the decorative arts. She has spoken at libraries throughout Long Island, at Hofstra University and CW Post-Hutton House. She is the Coordinator of the Interior Design/Certificate Program in Continuing Education at Queensborough Community College. Her articles on interior design have appeared in Times Ledger Newspapers, distributed throughout Brooklyn, The Bronx and Queens. Her writing practice includes fiction and non-fiction, and her stories and essays have been published in many literary journals including The Alaska Quarterly Review, The Iconoclast, The MacGuffin and Passager. She is the author of Lily Steps Out (Penumbra Publishing May 2012), and most recently, the short story collection, Alterations (Penumbra Publishing 2013).

To learn more about Rita visit her website. http://www.ritaplush.com

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