Sweet writing, sweet cause

Joselyn Vaughn is a feel-good writer. Read one of her books and be prepared to laugh out loud, have a healthy little worry, and wrap it all up with a happily ever after. Her books are perfect summer reads. Luckily for you, she has a new book, Climbing Heartbreak Hill, coming out just in time for the season. In the strange way of serendipity, Climbing Heartbreak Hill features ex-Boston-marathoner, Ryan Grant. Joselyn is not just a writer. She’s a runner as well.  And when the Boston Marathon bombing hit a month before her release, Joselyn felt it strike a chord.

Let her tell you…

As a runner writing about running and the Boston Marathon, I have to do whatever I can to

Joselyn (on the far right) and friends running for Boston

support those injured at this year’s event. I’ve worn race shirts, I’ve run 4.09 miles, I’ve run 26.2 miles (over a few days) for those who didn’t get to finish the race and I wore yellow and blue for the Boston Athletic Association at the River Bank Run. Now I’m asking you for help. A portion of my proceeds from Climbing Heartbreak Hill will go to the One Fund Boston. Every penny and every step counts. Run on!

There you have it…the perfect package. Buy a sweet book and support a sweet cause. Run, don’t walk, to get your copy now. I am.

Blurb: Professional runner, Ryan Grant, blows out his knee training for another attempt at the Boston marathon and the dreaded Heartbreak Hill. Ryan retreats home, not looking for anything more than a fast recovery, but he finds solace in the arms of his tax preparer, Tara Mansfield.

Tara’s cheerleading career ended abruptly and she faces an upward climb beating the stereotype as dumb blonde in her new calling as an accountant. Framed with defrauding the IRS during the last weeks of the tax season, Tara’s tentative confidence is shaken, but Ryan coaches her in ensnaring the true perpetrator. She cheers him on in discovering his identity as a coach rather than an athlete.

With the help of the junkyard king and a mechanical bull, can Tara and Ryan find the courage to climb Heartbreak Hill together?

Excerpt: Tara didn’t let go of the phone after hearing the dial tone. She wasn’t sure what to do. Should she call the hospital? Minnie, Mark’s aunt? Leslie’s doctor? Leslie seemed awfully calm for a woman going into labor two months early, but she handled crises stoically. If Tara had been in her position, she would have been hysterical. People three blocks away would be able to time her contractions.

“Mark’s on his way. Can I get you anything?”

Leslie’s lips tightened. “If you have an epidural stashed in your desk, I’ll take it straight up. Although if I have another contraction, I’m going to ask you to knock me out with a volume of the tax code.”

Tara squeezed Leslie’s shoulder. The bell on the front door rang, and Tara scurried down the hallway wondering how Mark was able to arrive so quickly. But it wasn’t Mark.

A lanky, sandy haired man on crutches elbowed his way through the door, alternating between pushing the glass door open and inching his crutches forward. He wore a red windbreaker with ‘Lakeshore Track Club’ embroidered on the chest. Clutched between his left hand and the handle of his crutch was a wad of papers. It wasn’t the worst presentation of receipts she’d seen in the last three months, but it would make the top ten.

She experienced a brief wave of déjà vu. A flash of his face laughing in the dark. Had she seen him before somewhere? His physique didn’t match any of the football players she had been in contact with. Surely the strange bend in his nose would stand out enough in her memory. It gave him a reckless air she found appealing.

“Let me help you with that.” She hurried over to the door and kicked the stopper down to hold it open while she relieved him of the fistful of paper. A quick scan of the parking lot told her Mark’s truck hadn’t arrived yet. “Do you have an appointment?”

“Your sign said walk-ins were welcome.” His voice had a pleasant timbre. Tara didn’t miss the once-over he gave her. She was used to those. It was one of the side-effects of having breast implants not written in the tri-fold brochure from the plastic surgeon: every male and one in three females will stare at your chest. At times, Tara wanted to wear a name-tag that said ‘and yes, they are fake’ under her name.

Support Boston, buy it now: 

Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Climbing-Heartbreak-Hill-ebook/dp/B00CX20YLI/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1369156247&sr=8-1&keywords=climbing+heartbreak+Hill

Astraea Press: http://astraeapress.com/#!/~/product/category=662245&id=23861577

 

Contact Links:

Email: joselynvaughn@gmail.com

Website: http://joselynvaughn.com

Blog: http://joselynvaughn.wordpress.com

Amazon: http://amazon.com/author/joselynvaughn

Twitter: @joselynvaughn

Facebook: http://facebook.com/joselynvaughn

Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Joselyn-Vaughn/225825554094665?fref=ts

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/2907038.Joselyn_Vaughn

/show/2907038.Joselyn_Vaughn

Curb Appeal 1

The Farmette

For those of you not in the know…the Grant family may or may not be moving in the near future. (Waves hand at the federal sequester and the resultant hiring freeze.) Thus we may or may not be putting the Farmette on the market. I know, all this decisiveness is amazing…it’s killing me too.

I love the Farmette. But she’s really more of a workhorse than a show horse. In other words, she doesn’t exactly grab the eye.

Thus we have embarked upon a program to impart curb

The Farmette…pre-program to impart curb appeal

appeal to the old dear. A lot of it may just be spring clean-up (trimming, mulch, etc.). But we hope to add a few other details as well. Unfortunately, she’s not the type of gal who can carry off gingerbread trim or anything like that. Still, we have hope. Even an old farmhouse can learn new tricks.

The Walkway

This is our first project (okay, actually it’s DH’s first project…with my back issues, I’m not allowed to help): Installation of a walkway from the driveway to the front door. There’s always a pathway worn through here, and any rain makes it mud.

I’ll post an after picture…you know…after.

What’s next? I’m thinking a brighter color around those window frames than the faded sage green. And exterior doors to match. Navy blue? Hunter green?

Sound off on what you think our next project should be…

My Life as a Sit-Com or The Saga of the Bed

I know a writer should never start with backstory, but rules are made to be broken, right? So…two years ago, my car got rear-ended by a teenager driver. Follow that up with two heavy-duty wood-cutting sessions for the family, and ever since I’ve been dealing with back pain. I recently started physical therapy, and DH and I decided it was finally time to get rid of that 20-year-old thing we called a mattress..

I had started sleeping downstairs on the full bed in the study/extra room/toy repository because that mattress was so much better. DH was still upstairs in the queen bed. Eventually, we found a new mattress–just enough soft with lots of support. Because we are on a pretty strict budget (read cheap), we brought the mattress home ourselves rather than have it delivered. Once we got it in the house, we immediately brought the old one down and hauled it to the dump.

I say immediately but it wasn’t quite like that. Folding the old mattress like a taco shell and dinging the wall paint with it while DH pulled and I laid my bulk on top to push (remember I can’t do much with this back) took us quite a while! Old farmhouses are not made for queen-sized mattresses.

Eventually, we realized that there was no way DH could get the new mattress upstairs and I was no help. The old mattress was gone. That left DH and I looking at a night together in the full bed in the study surrounded by a ring of the girl’s toys.

We can do this, we thought. So we settled in. Even with both of us out to the edge, we were still touching in the middle. No worries, right? Just a little cozy. We finally managed to fall asleep. However, Frank, our 13-year-old Labrador, has developed anxiety issues with his age, and even though we moved his bed downstairs, he had difficulty adjusting to the

Oh sure, he looks peaceful here. Add a storm and he becomes a whirling dervish of anxiety.

change. So he paced. And paced. I had DH whose body temperature is about 20 degrees hotter than a normal man on one side and Frank whose breath is about the same temperature (only stinky) on the other.

Then the thunderstorm hit.

Frank’s anxiety begins and ends with storms. So his reign of terror started. His pacing became more frantic. His breathing got heavier. He tried to climb into the bed with us, which was already pretty crowded.

Enter the toys. The girls’ toys are scattered around the bed, and Frank started stepping on them, kicking them.

Oh sure they look cute here. At 4 a.m. during a thunderstorm, they morph into devil’s spawn.

And the floor started to talk. Three words…Zhu Zhu pets.

At this point, DH leaned over me to swat at Frank and laid full on my back, which made me add my voice to the cute little voices coming from the floor. Needless to say my voice was neither cute nor little.

It was not a good night.

The next day, I called my brother. He and his 14-year-old son (who is already 6 foot plus) rode to the rescue and with DH, they muscled the new mattress upstairs. Too bad they couldn’t help us with Frank and the Zhu Zhu pets.

Creativity or Lack Thereof…

Today I’m visiting with Joselyn Vaughn where I discuss my arts-and-crafts gene…or lack thereof.

Stop by and say hello…click here…

Monday Mix-and-Match…The Elusive Dougar

This week the Monday Muse bailed on us…or at least she chose to hit us all in different ways. This week, Chris Allen-Riley, Leigh Jones, Lynn Doezema, and I are mixing and matching. Each of us is writing about something different, so be sure to check it out.

I love to read about cryptids–Bigfoot, Nessie, Chupacabra. After writing about werewolves, of course I had to delve into the Dog Man. I don’t actually believe said critters exist–well, maybe Nessie; I just believe the world would be a far more magical place if they did. That said, the kids and I delight in searching out evidence for cryptids. It’s also a good way to teach your kids the scientific method. The part where the easiest explanation for phenomena is usually the right explanation is always the hardest part for my girls to take.

Along with looking for cryptids, we love to look for wildlife in general. Where we live in Michigan, there are rumors of cougars and bears, although we’ve seen neither. That doesn’t stop us from looking, though.

On weekend afternoon, DH, the girls, and I were driving when we spotted a large animal moving through a field at the edge of a woods. I made DH turn around and go back so we could watch it (he’s long-suffering, my DH is!). Of course, I didn’t have a camera. Our children’s formative years are full of milestones unrecorded because of my inability to remember the d*&% camera.

So…here it is…Dougar field. Doesn’t look like much, does it? It’s empty so don’t strain your eyes; as mentioned, I didn’t have the d*&% camera.

Anyway, moving through the trees in the center of the photo was a big tan creature. Four legs, long tail, long bodied. Here’s an interesting comment on eyewitness accounts. DH and kids insist the critter had that rolling shoulder walk that cats have. I insist it didn’t. What struck me was its tail–long, thick, ropy looking–way longer than a dog’s tail. But its muzzle was brown. So we sat and watched it move through the field and disappear. Then the debate started: Dog? Cougar? Dog? Cougar?

Eventually, we decided it was a Dougar. We debated on the term cog, but given its more general usage, that didn’t cut it. So I think we just invented our own cryptid (or maybe it’s a hybrid). DH thinks I should stop at nearby houses and ask to see their dogs. I think I’m interested in the advancement of cryptozoology but not that interested.

We keep looking but we’ve never seen the elusive Dougar again. The girls are rather mournful every time we drive by the field and it’s empty.

So, what do you think? Dog? Cougar? Or Dougar?

Have you ever seen something in the woods you couldn’t identify?

P.S. Remember when the Dougar hits the official cryptid lists, you heard it here first.

Weekly Musings…Favorite Books

Ha! By renaming this post, I’ve fooled you all into thinking I’m on time (except that I just told you I’m not…hmmm, I’m not very good at deception). This week, Chris Allen-Riley, Leigh Jones, Lynn Doezema, and I are looking at our favorite books. Ooh, where to start…

How about here?  Tolkien! Both The Hobbit and the trilogy. Hobbits, dwarves, elves, glowing blue swords. Throw in a ring, a dragon, some Cracks of Doom and some beautiful writing and you have an epic.

What about The Stand by Stephen King?

He can rock a killer plague like no one else. This book is really a foundation piece for me…good versus Evil (and yes, that’s with a capital E!).

Then there’s Rebecca. Who doesn’t get the shivers from Mrs. Danvers? I never dream of Manderly, but I sure wish I would.

Oh…To Kill a Mockingbird. I won this gorgeous copy in a library reading contest. I even named one of our horses Scout (although DH also pointed out that was the name of Tonto’s horse).

Then there’s Catch-22.  This particular copy has been to both Vietnam and Laos–packed in my footlocker and DH’s as well. Looks like it. Probably smells like it too.

So those are some of my favorite books. If you haven’t read any of these, I encourage you to choose one of them and dive in. All of these books have inspired me in one way or another: Good versus evil, the power of one individual to change the world, suspenseful settings, irony. I think my own writing carries the stamp of some or all of these books.

Lastly, I want to mention this book: Down a Dark Hall by Lois Duncan. I picked up this copy at a library book sale. I remember reading it as a kid (and rereading it!), but as an adult I remembered nothing other than I liked it. I paid a whole quarter for it, brought it home and popped it on the bookshelf. Over Christmas break, my daughter was looking for something to read so I grabbed this one for her. She finished it in a few hours. I asked her what she thought, and she proclaimed it “Very good and very creepy.” I took a peek through it…and realized the main character’s name was Kit. Guess it impacted me more than I remember! I’ve moved it onto my TBR pile. When I finish it, I’ll let you know how it was.

How about you? Have you read any of these? Did you like them? If not these, what’s your recommendation?

JQ Rose is in the house!

Today, I’m excited to have JQ Rose guesting on Books and Bones. She talking about names (egad! I’m horrible at those) and her brand-spanking new mystery, Coda to Murder.  Take it away, JQ…

Hello, Tess. Thanks for inviting me to stop at Books and Bones on the book tour for my mystery/romance, Coda to Murder.

Readers, thanks so much for visiting with us. Please remember to leave a comment to enter the random drawing for prizes at the conclusion of the book tour on March 22.

 

What’s in a Name? by J.Q. Rose

March 7 is my second daughter’s birthday. Thirty years ago we had to pick out a girl’s name and a boy’s name because there were no ultrasound to discover the gender of the baby.

Choosing a name for a precious little bundle entering this world is a daunting task. Sorting through all the names you do not want is easy. Remember that girl who was your nemesis all through school? Definitely cannot name my baby Judy. How about that geeky boy who always reminded the teacher she forgot to assign us homework? Donald is definitely crossed out. How about family names? If my mom had stuck to the idea of naming me after her and my grandmother, I could have been Beulah Dorothy. Thank goodness she chose middle names instead. Janet Lee.

We chose Lee for our daughter because the name has gone through four generations. Little did I realize until her six week check-up, she could be mistaken for a boy named Lee. When the nurse called me into the doctor’s office, she asked how “he” was doing? He? I had to inform her of course that she was a girl named Lee. After that I worried about that name choice.

Choosing a title for a book is just about as harrowing as choosing a name for a kid. How do you figure out the whole story and tie it together with just the right name? Coda to Murder was nameless until I was ready to write the query letter to the publisher.  I always referred to the story as Pastor Christine, the main character.

Since Pastor Christine is an accomplished organist and the person murdered in the story is the Director of Music at the church, I decided to use a musical term in the title. Crescendo? Staff line? Treble clef?

I chose Coda because, according to dictionary.com, coda means “anything that serves as a concluding part.” Murder is pretty much a concluding part or ending of life.

Since the book has been out, I feel like I made a mistake using Coda to Murder because when I say the word coda, folks not into musical terms don’t understand it and others hear it as Coded to Murder. Sigh…I felt the same way when the nurse thought Lee was a boy. I just take a deep breath and correct them.

If you are a writer, how do you choose a title for your work in progress? If you are a reader, how much does the title influence your interest into looking into a book?

TAGLINE: Pastor Christine Hobbs never imagined she would be caring for a flock that includes a pig, a kangaroo, and a murderer.

BLURB:  Pastor Christine Hobbs has been in the pulpit business for over five years. She never imagined herself caring for a flock that includes a pig, a kangaroo, and a murderer.

Detective Cole Stephens doesn’t want the pretty pastor to get away with murdering the church music director. His investigative methods infuriate Christine as much as his deep brown eyes attract her.

Can they find the real killer and build a loving relationship based on trust?

BUY LINKS:

Now available at MuseItUp Publishing- http://tinyurl.com/anax9x7

Amazon.com http://tinyurl.com/ap376tb

Barnes and Noble.com and major online booksellers.

BIO- After writing feature articles in magazines, newspapers, and online magazines for over fifteen years, J.Q. Rose entered the world of fiction writing with her first published novella, Sunshine Boulevard, released by MuseItUp Publishing in 2011. Her latest mystery, Coda to Murder, was released in February. Blogging, photography, Pegs and Jokers board games, and travel are the things that keep her out of trouble. Spending winters in Florida with her husband allows Janet the opportunity to enjoy the life of a snowbird. Summer finds her camping and hunting toads, frogs, and salamanders with her four grandsons and granddaughter.

 Connect with J.Q. Rose online at

J.Q. Rose blog http://www.jqrose.com/

Girls Succeed blog http://girlssucceed.blogspot.com/

Author website http://jqrose.webs.com/

J. Q.  Rose Amazon Author Page http://tinyurl.com/aeuv4m4

Goodreads- http://www.goodreads.com/jqrose

Pinterest http://pinterest.com/janetglaser/

Monday Musings…again with the Tuesday thing…

Well, again I’m a day late on Monday Musings.  But I was so jazzed about the release of Flying in the Dark yesterday that I couldn’t help myself. This week Chris Allen-Riley, Leigh Jones, Lynn Doezema, and I are looking at our dream vacations.

Photo by Gwen Haugen

I think it’s funny how our personalities manifest in the places we want to visit. I once had a friend rave about Paris and how amazing it would be. Paris? Nope, not on my list. Mountains and oceans–that’s what I want. They don’t have to be in the same place, but 2-for-1 is a special I can’t pass up.

Here’s my list: New ZealandAustralia, Ireland/Scotland, Greece, Fiji, out West USA, Normandy.

Current tops on the list is New Zealand because I’m a nerd. I want to do a Middle Earth tour in New Zealand and visit all the locations/sets where the Lord of the Rings/The Hobbit were made. Told you I was a nerd (Admit it: You love me for it.).

However, since it’s winter in Michigan and I’m surrounded by snow, I’m also thinking

Photo by Gwen Haugen

about sand, sun and surf. I think now would be the perfect time for a little island hopping. Fiji, here I come (in my head, perhaps, but this is a post about Dream Vacations!). Okay, so the photos are of the North Shore of Oahu, but go with it people.

So…spill the beans…your dream vacation is…?????

Release Day!

It’s here! Book Three of the Kitty Irish Trilogy is out. Flying in the Dark is available at Amazon, Smashwords, and on sale at Turquoise Morning Press! It’s on the way at Barnes and Noble and in paperback.

High school senior Kitty Irish knows exactly what Daniel Phinney expected of her—eradicate the werewolves haunting the Manistee National Forest—until her father comes home from Iraq and takes over.

Too bad Kitty’s plan unravels. Her father spends his time watching the tree line from the safety of a wingback chair. Her hunting partner analyzes college campuses while she analyzes kill sites. When her brother finds a new friend in a long lost uncle, Kitty’s war with the werewolves becomes a battle for more than just her own life.

Whatever Phinney prepared her for, this isn’t it.

In the final installment of the Kitty Irish Trilogy, Kitty’s past meets her present in an explosive confrontation. The battle comes to her front porch making the fight for the future more than claws and fangs.

Come along for the ride and finish out Kitty’s adventure!

Monday Musings…on Tuesday

Well, I’m a day late on Monday Musings. Let’s hope this isn’t becoming a trend (Tardy Tess on Tuesdays or something like that). This week Chris Allen-Riley, Kirsti Jones, Lynn Doezema, and I are looking at what we need to write.

I don’t write well by hand anymore. I cross out so many words and draw arrows and wind sentences around the margins that when I go to transcribe it, half the time I can’t even figure out what I was trying to say. So, of course I need my computer. DH got me a digital handheld recorder for Christmas so that I can “write” anywhere by speaking and transcribing later. Hope to break it in this week!

I also have to set a timer–stove timer, phone alarm, something. Anything to remind me that for the next hour, I’m concentrating on one thing and one thing only. Do I get sidetracked? Sure. But if I leave the table or chair, I try to note the time, so I can back the clock up when I return to work.

These two are biggies for me…caffeine and tunes. I like the first black, flavored, and leaning toward lukewarm. And I like the second minus earbuds. Those stupid things always pop out of my ears; I know one ear is higher than the other, but is that any reason to harsh my groove?

I make a playlist for each book. I find after a few times of listening and writing that I drop into the writing groove as soon as the music comes on.  There’s a lot of overlap between lists usually, and it varies wildly…from movie soundtracks to current stuff. For example, I’ve started work on a new book–a YA with a male slacker protagonist. So far, his playlist has some classic U2 (Red Hill Mining Town), some contemporary Christian rock by The Afters (You Light up the Sky), some movie themes (Cowboys and Aliens and The Hobbit), as well as a little Dave Matthews (If I Had It All).

That’s pretty much it–coffee, computer, and musical accompaniment. I have other accompaniment as well–not all of it helpful. Here are two of the farmette’s critters having a rousing battle to help me out. No doubt immediately before I took this photo one of them was taking a bath on my lap while the other bumped my elbow continuously with her cold nose.

How about you? What do you need to accomplish a task?

Better yet, know any good songs for Slacker Boy’s playlist?