Tag: love

REVIEW…Ransom Canyon by Jodi Thomas

reviews, authors, writing reviews, authors, writingreviews, authors, writing5 out of 5 quills  reviews, authors, writingreviews, authors, writing   A Review  ** Ransom Canyon by Jodi Thomas

Jodi.book.coverCrossroads, Texas.  A 4-way intersection with one signal light.  Turn south to Abilene, north to Amarillo…you get the idea. Just a stop in the road to where you need to go.  As you sit at the light do you ever wonder about the people that populate this little one-horse-town?  Of course you don’t…your thoughts are about how big this state is and ‘will I ever get out of Texas?’ Come on, you know we’ve all thought it!

Thomas tells you all about the folks in the little village of Crossroads in a new series entitled Ransom Canyon Romance. And it’s great reading.  In my mind it’s not just about Staten and Quinn, two star-crossed lovers.  There were several main characters that stole this reader’s heart.  Yancy, a new parolee, Grandma Kirkland, and Lucas.  But that’s all I’m going to say as this reviewer does not write spoilers and give you the whole story, chapter and verse.

This is a charming and entertaining read and I highly recommend it as I do with all of Jodi Thomas’ books.

Jodi wrote in an e-mail: “Like most writers I get the same question again and again. “Where do your ideas come from? Sometimes I have no idea where the seed of an idea started to grow in my mind. But, then I get out Grandma Kirkland’s button box….
When I was little, her big box of buttons always fascinated me. I played with it for hours. Now, in an upstairs room off my office, I gather the grand-kids (6,5,4,2) around the old sewing machine. They all get excited as I open the box and let each one pick a button. Old rusty ones, bright diamond bling, tiny pearl ones, some still have tiny pieces of fabric connected from worn out clothes. Continue reading “REVIEW…Ransom Canyon by Jodi Thomas”

Review…Her Lucky Cowboy by Jennifer Ryan

Cover.J.Ryan..ScanA Review  reviews, authors, writingreviews, authors, writingreviews, authors, writingreviews, authors, writingreviews, authors, writing5 out of 5 quills

Delicious!!  A flawed, compassionate heroine and a hunky, injured  bull rider!  Jennifer Ryan really delivered with this one!  I was fully engaged on page one! These two lovers meet in the middle of a rodeo arena with a maddened bull as a chaperon.

Champion rodeo rider Dane Bowden is eight seconds from winning under the Vegas lights, one last hurrah before reluctantly returning to his family’s Montana ranch. But his bull has other plans. When Dane wakes up, he’s sure he’s died and gone to heaven . . . because the doctor who comes to his aid is the same girl who saved his life years ago and then disappeared. Bell would do anything for Dane. He’s the fantasy that always kept her going. A child genius hidden away by her family, Bell was the secret no one talked about, the girl no one wanted.

Ryan weaves story after story.  This is an exceptional tale.  I loved it and you will too!!

Release date: August 25th.  Did you miss my Interview with Jennifer Ryan. Click here.Ryan.photo..32.58 (Small)
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DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS featuring INTERVIEWS with  best-selling AUTHORS!     Jennifer Ryan,(Aug.), Grant Blackwood (Tom Clancy) Sept. and Julia London.
Don’t Miss it!  A bonus Interview with Iconic comic book writer, Chuck Dixon, in September.
Coming Soon! Review of Entry Island by Peter May and Ransom Canyon by Jodi Thomas.
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One True Heart by Jodi Thomas…a Review

reviews, authors, writingreviews, authors, writingreviews, authors, writingreviews, authors, writingreviews, authors, writing  Five out of 5 Quills (rating)  ‘One True Heart’ ** A ReviewOne True Heart

This was a story that this reader didn’t want to end.   I found myself rationing the pages to prolong the enjoyment.  (I know some of my readers do the same when the book is just so good).
The author, Jodi Thomas, takes us back to the little Texas town of Harmony.  Home!
Where people grow up, move away and then (always) return.  Sometimes to heal, sometimes to hide, sometimes to reconnect with loved ones.
Captain Millanie McAllen comes home to heal the wounds of a warrior. Continue reading “One True Heart by Jodi Thomas…a Review”

More Nostalgia…..the Roaring Twenties

I was sorting through my library of over 500 books and came across, of all things, my ‘baby book’.  Inside I found more photos of my mother, Violet, (Wild Violets, a novel) during her flapper days in San Francisco.  Most exciting was to find this newspaper clipping featuring her on the team of a semi-pro, female basketballthe roaring twenties team.  Sadly, I did not find the article. She saved enough of her earnings with the winning team to buy a bar and grill on Fulton Street in SF.

Geisha girl costume during Violet's roaring twenties yearsThis photo is from a costume party she held at her bar.

 

 

 

And this in her camping/hunting garb. No surprise, it resembles what the heroines of the day in Hollywood wore.th114DCWAM

Violet at a hunting cabin  Here she is sitting on the porch of the cabin.  She used to laugh and quip: ‘I had to sit all prim and proper because the zipper in my pants Violet at the hunt cabin circa: 1920'shad broken’.  Check out her boots.

Last but not least, here is a studio photo of Violet (on the right) with her sister, Gladys. She was a stunner and never wanted for men…always buzzing around and not always a good thing.Wild Violets, a novel
If you want to read more please check out my novel based on her life as a flapper during the hot jazz, cold gin, dance all night road houses, speakeasy days in San Francisco.  Available in e-books and audio.

 

Wild Violets, a novelSynopsis:

After documenting my mother’s colorful childhood in the primordial forests of Washington State, I wrote a story of Violet as a grown woman with children of her own. She has left her small home town in the Pacific Northwest to pursue a successful basketball career and with her earnings, she buys a bar and grill. She is a ‘flapper’ in every sense of the word; working all day and playing all night. While her teenage daughter raises her seven year old son, Violet is out on the town with her latest man de’jour. Dressed in her signature red dress, she is the toast of the town and owner of a speakeasy where she hosts the cream of San Francisco’s society, city politicians, bishops, and Hollywood celebrities.

But there is an underbelly of corruption, grifters, the mob, excess, and neglect in Violet’s life. Her two children are an afterthought and she chooses her men over their well being time and time again. Their childhood needs are always trumped by her self-indulgent desires. The two children are possessions that she can put down or pick up again on a whim, showing them off to her current beau or friends and then forgotten. And when they get in her way, she gets rid of them.
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Freshfiction.com reviews “Women Outside the Walls”

FreshFiction.com reviewed my book and I couldn’t be more delighted.WOW.BanW._wow (3)

“Meet the heroines of WOMEN OUTSIDE THE WALLS.
These women are all brought together through one avenue: Their husbands are all in the same prison.

First, there’s Alma. Her husband, Charlie, is in prison for murder. At first that sounds terrible, but there’s a story behind this that makes you see that everything isn’t so cut and dried as it may seem at first. Alma has been in love with Charlie since she was 16 and he was 23. But he knew he was too old for her and he went away so he could avoid making a mistake with her. Abandoned by her mother in favor of a boyfriend that didn’t want kids around, she was taken in by a neighbor that helped her get through the next couple of years until she graduated from high school. That’s when Alma found that she had a talent for exotic dancing. It was at the end of one of her performances in a high end strip club one night that she was reconnected with Charlie, quite by accident. The next thing she knows, Alma’s pregnant and Charlie runs again, at least temporarily. They do end up together as a family and all is well until Charlie gets in trouble.

Next is Kitty. She’s a woman of wealth and social standing. Her husband, Edward, is imprisoned for a white collar crime and she’s simply not equipped to handle it. However, she does take herself to the prison on visiting day to see him. He agrees to see her once and that’s only to tell her to get a divorce and make a new life for herself and their children. After that, even though Kitty comes faithfully on every visiting day, he refuses to see her.

Then there’s Hattie. She’s a proud, African American woman with a talent for cleaning, a head for math and a heart of gold. Her husband, Joe, doesn’t belong in prison. He’s only there because he’s protecting his little brother. But Hattie is counting the days until her Joe gets out and can come home to her and their kids. Joe loves Hattie and they both look forward to that day.

These women all come together in the waiting room and then visitor’s room at the prison while waiting to visit their men. They all have one thing in common and that’s the fact that they love their men. In the process of this shared experience, they become connected in a way that no one else would ever understand.

Life goes on in this way until the day that a tragic event takes place that will involve them all even more. Things may not end as anyone expects.

Told in both the present and past tenses, WOMEN OUTSIDE THE WALLS offers a bittersweet look into the lives of women that love incarcerated men. There’s laughter and tears but, most of all, there’s the strong emotional bond these women share.

This is an honest book, which means that it’s not always a happy book. It will touch your heart in ways that you wouldn’t expect and is a book well worth spending the time to read. You’ll come away with a new respect for women in this situation and a bit more understanding of why they continue supporting the men they love, no matter what.’ ~~Review~Freshfiction.com

Happy Holidays to all my Supporters, Friends and Followers

Dog4
Sadie helps with the tree trimming

Wishing you all a fabulous New Year!!

Love, Trish

 

 

Dog.Cat2
Gus and Fiona
Sadie, 2012
Sadie, 2012
Dog1
Rocky

This Author featured on Poetrysoup.com

Dear Trisha,

Congratulations, this is to let you know that your poem The Ash Can is one of the poems being featured on the PoetrySoup home page this week. Poems are rotated each day in groups of 14-16 to give each poem an equal opportunity to be displayed.

Thanks again and congratulations.

Sincerely,

PoetrySoup.com

The Ash Can ©  Trisha Sugarek

I got the call on Sunday night. I was traveling on business. When I looked at the caller ID
I wondered why my husband’s boss would be calling me. I was unprepared for what
he told me and my legs turned to water when he said that my husband was dead.
‘A heart attack? An accident?’ I asked. ‘No’, he said, ‘John committed suicide.
They found him in your garage this morning.’ I heard someone screaming and
wished that they would stop so I could hear the rest. His voice was very far away
and the woman just kept screaming. ‘Shut up! Shut up!’ I need to hear. I clapped myJohn.Songof YUkon 001
hand over my mouth when I suddenly realized it was me who was screaming.
I don’t remember hanging up or getting on the plane.  Yes, John and I were having
problems and we had been separated for about three months but nothing was official.

After thirty years of marriage I never believed that we couldn’t weather this and share
the rest of our lives together. Continue reading “This Author featured on Poetrysoup.com”

Winners Announced Later Today!

fiction, women, flappers, prohibition, San Francisco, roaring twentiesThe Winners of the Weekend Book Give-away will be announced later today.  If you are a winner, drop us a message and tell us whether  you want a signed paperback or an audio version of your book.  For a paperback, we will need your mailing address.

CONGRATULATIONS to OUR WINNERS!  Like my page so you don’t miss future drawings!

After reading Wild Violets, I would really appreciate your writing a short review on www.amazon.com.  It helps the book’s rankings.  Thank you for all the ‘likes’ and ‘follows’!

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DON’T MISS UPCOMING BLOGS featuring INTERVIEWS with  best-selling AUTHORS!

In addition to my twice weekly blog I also feature an interview with another author once a month. So come along with me; we shall sneak into these writers’ special places, be a fly on the wall and watch them create!    Dean Koontz is my June author.

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Interview with Loretta Chase, best selling author (part 2)

Q.  When did you begin to write seriously? LC & Puccini May 2011

A.  As soon as I learned to write.  As a small child, I used to tell stories.  Some people called these lies.  Truth—lies—all the same to me.  But I remember I couldn’t wait to learn to read & write.  As soon as I had the alphabet and some vocabulary under my belt—Look!  See!  Go!—I was writing.  It did not stop.  Journals, letters, poetry, and interminable Great American Novel.  But the GAN never got finished, probably because I did not know how to write a story.  I didn’t get my head wrapped around story structure until I started writing scripts for corporate video.  One of my producers(the man I eventually married) got me to admit I wanted to become a novelist (like Charles Dickens!).  As part of his cunning Get Rich Slow Scheme, he persuaded or tricked or taunted me—I’m still not quite sure what happened—to work up the nerve to write a book for publication.

Q. How long after that were you published?

A. Contrary to all the laws of publishing, the first novel I wrote from beginning to end was accepted by the first publisher I sent it to.  Un-agented.  Over the transom.  Those were the days. Continue reading “Interview with Loretta Chase, best selling author (part 2)”

Interview with best selling author, Loretta Chase (part 1)

LOretta.IMG_0823 Seems like I’ve been chasing Loretta around forever for an interview, but it turns out that she’s just been busy writing and traveling.  I am delighted that we re-connected and she has shared this wonderful look into her writing process and experiences.

 Q.  Where do you write? Do you have a special room, shed, barn, special space for your writing? 

A. I have a room set aside.  It’s about ¼ the size I need.  I dream of a barn, to be converted into a studio, with miles of bookshelves and a vast wall space for my historical maps.

Q.  Do you have any special rituals when you sit down to write? 

A.  A cup of tea or coffee.  Then I panic.  Then I run out of the room & find something else to do.  Then I return, maybe write something, panic, and so on.  My work area is always in chaos, and putting things away provides a superior method of procrastinating.

Q.  What is your mode of writing? 

A.  Years ago it was longhand.  Now I work mainly at the computer, occasionally reverting to longhand when writing in bed, imagining I’m Marcel Proust or Edith Sitwell .  This tends to happen when my brain needs to get unstuck. Continue reading “Interview with best selling author, Loretta Chase (part 1)”