IWSG Blog Hop: My Favorite Writing and New Book Release by Dr. Bob Rich

 

Insecure Writers Support Group Blog Hop

#IWSGbloghop

What is the Insecure Writer's Support Group?

Founded by author Alex J. Cavanaugh, the Insecure Writer’s Support Group offers support for writers and authors alike. It provides an online database, articles and tips, a monthly blog posting, a Facebook and Instagram group, Twitter, and a monthly newsletter. 

To find out more, click here.

  

The purpose of the group is 

* to share and encourage. 

* Writers can express doubts and concerns 

without fear of appearing foolish or weak. 

* Those who have been through the fire can offer assistance and guidance. 

*It’s a safe haven for insecure writers of all kinds! 

You're invited to become a member of this supportive group. 

Click here to sign up and/or to visit the bloggers this week.

Happy IWSG Day!

Happy October

The awesome co-hosts for the October 1 posting of the IWSG are Beth Camp, Crystal Collier, and Cathrina Constantine!

Hello and Welcome to the Focus on Story blog and to the IWSG Blog Hop!

Before I answer the Blog Hop question of the month, it is my honor to introduce you to an outstanding author and friend from Australia, Dr Bob Rich. He just released his new book, The Hole in Your Life: Grief and Bereavement.

The Hole in Your Life
Bob Rich, PhD

Dr. Bob emailed me this message. "My daughter died in December, and to honour her memory, I had my 20th book published, The Hole in Your Life: Grief and Bereavement. As part of healing from my loss, I want to reduce the suffering of others insofar as it is within my power, and this book is my tool."

This is a timely book as the holiday season approaches. For those who have lost loved ones, the holidays are difficult times when we face the empty seat at the table. The book guides you when your world falls apart, whether because of the loss of a loved person, other disasters like bankruptcy, divorce or natural disaster, or “merely” experiencing second-hand grief at all the suffering we see on the news.

 Dr. Bob has decades of experience in providing counseling and psychological services. This little book, written with humor, uses stories to teach the ways of thinking and acting that help resolve grief. You can read a little about it at http://grief.lhpress.com

* * * *

About Dr. Bob:

Bob Rich, Ph.D. earned his doctorate in psychology in 1972. He worked as an academic, researcher and applied scientist until "retiring" the first time at 36 years of age. Later, he returned to psychology and qualified in Counseling Psychology and ran a private practice for over 20 years. During this time, he was on the national executive of the College of Counselling Psychologists of the Australian Psychological Society (APS), then spent three years as a Director of the APS. He was the therapist referrers sent their most difficult cases to.

As you can see from his picture, tiny kids laugh at Bob, perhaps because they think he looks funny. When he walks down the street, strangers smile at him. This comes with the territory of being a Professional Grandfather. Since

Dr. Bob
Author and Grandpa

all sentient beings (on earth and elsewhere) are his family, his joy is to spread smiles, which act as boomerangs. That is very appropriate for an Australian storyteller.

 

One of Bob’s personal cliches is, “Writing is the chocolate icing on the cake of life,” even when it concerns topics like grief and depression. Click here to sample a few of his short stories and essays at his blog, Bobbing Around.

 

His long term policy is to offer a free e-book to any new subscriber to Bobbing Around, and anyone who sends him proof of purchase of one of his books. What have you got to lose but boredom?

* * * *

October 1 Question 

What is the most favorite thing you have written, published or not? And why?

This is an easy question to answer. I enjoyed writing a romantic suspense novel, Dangerous Sanctuary. The characters are funny and quirky, and so were the situations they faced. The scenes and conversations about who killed the choir director were not funny. I giggled as I wrote the scene where Pastor Christine is

Dangerous Sanctuary

left with the responsibility of taking care of a kangaroo and a pig.

Why did I write this story about a woman who is the pastor of a small church in a small town in West Michigan? The spark was ignited by a challenge from our pastor (who was a woman) to explain why we were followers of Jesus. She only asked for a short, 3-minute elevator pitch. But instead, I wrote an entire book! As one reviewer said, "There's no preaching."

Back of the Book:

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?

* * * *

Please leave your thoughts below on how you choose your favorite writing project. 

Thanks for stopping in today!!

Click here to visit more participants in the IWSG Blog Hop!!

Watercolor painting is by me! I've been playing with watercolor this summer and loving it. You too?

Connect online with JQ Rose:

Email: jqrose02 @ gmail dot com

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Historical Romance Author Rosemary Morris' New Release: The Viscount and the Orphan #newrelease #historical romance

Novels by Historical Romance Author Rosemary Morris

Hello and Welcome to the Focused on Story Blog!

I am thrilled to have my English friend and talented storyteller, Rosemary Morris, as a guest author today. Rosemary is thorough when researching the amazing stories she creates to be sure every bit of the history is true. Then she layers a beautiful romance with the historical era as the backdrop. She uses the language of the time, the clothing and the settings to bring you into the stories with characters you will love--or hate!

NEW RELEASE
The Viscount and the Orphan by Rosemary Morris
Historical Fiction

To avoid bankruptcy, Viscount Cavanagh cannot refuse an arranged marriage

 to Dorinda Davenport, 

a naïve, sixteen-year-old heiress, who believes it is a love-match. 

 

Congratulations, Rosemary, on your new release, the Viscount and the Orphan! Available now! Where do you get your ideas for your novels?

Thank you, Janet, for inviting me to be a guest on your blog.

I am often asked where I get ideas for my novels. Historical non-fiction is a source of inspiration. Besotted by everything Scottish—the clothing, the pipes and the dancing, she and her husband raised the 92nd Foot, or as they are commonly known, The Gordon Highlanders. On the eve of the battle at Waterloo, Pipe Major Alexander Cameron led the Scots dancers into the ballroom while playing the bagpipes. Later, the regiment marched out of Brussels, kilts swaying to the tune of the regimental march, Cock O’ the North played by drums and bagpipes. The poignant scene sparked my imagination. I wrote Monday’s Child in which the heroine, an artist, captures the anxiety underlying the gaiety in Brussels paints during the 100 days after Napoleon’s escape from Elba.

After I studied how Christmas was celebrated during the Regency era, I enjoyed writing Wednesday’s Child about Amelia, a poor little, orphaned rich girl. After her grandmother, who held strictly to her own set of rules and made her do the same dies, she is cast into a state of gloom. She knows little of the ways of a normal life until she is thrust into the boisterous household of the Earl of Saunton, entrusted with her guardianship. During the twelve days of Christmas, Amelia wants to join in bobbing for apples, snapdragon, hunt the slipper and other amusements. She refrains for fear Saunton and his family would tease her without mercy when any attempt revealed she did not know how to play the games.

As well as eight novels set in the Regency era, three set in the early 18^th century have been published.  The theme in Far Beyond Rubies took root when I read about young men who joined the East India Company. Many of them were sent up country, business was transacted by courier, and for years they did not see another European. Influenced by Hinduism, my hero questions whether reincarnation is a fact and becomes a vegetarian. This led to the plot which evolves after he returns to England and sees the heroine. 

Click here to purchase Rosemary's novels, scroll down the page to her book covers and click on the book cover to choose your favorite online bookstore.

Click here to purchase the Viscount and the Orphan 50% off for a limited time at the Smashwords Fall eBook Sale.

 ABOUT ROSEMARY:

I live in a town in Southeast England with easy access to London and the open countryside. My Literary/Romantic fiction is set in England during the reigns of Edward II, Queen Anne Stuart 1702-1714, and the ever-popular Regency era. I explore themes

Author Rosemary Morris 

 21st-century people can relate to e.g., a soldier suffering from posttraumatic syndrome before the condition was recently diagnosed, a young woman seeking her birth parents, and a city on the verge of war. At heart, I am a historian. My novels are meticulously researched to capture times past – speech, fashion, food, customs and much more.

My novels, which have received many 5* reviews, are sensual, but with firmly-closed bedroom doors, the reader can relish the details of emerging romances.

When I am not engrossed in researching historical non-fiction, I read fiction, write, or engage in ‘writerly’ activities. I enjoy time spent with family and friends, knitting, growing my organic garden and putting it to good use in my vegetarian cuisine. 

* * * *

Thanks so much for visiting with us, Rosemary!

Rosemary loves hearing from her readers. Her email address is srilekharach (at) hotmail (dot).com

 Click here to read the first three chapters of her novels at Rosemary's website.

* * * * 

Click here to purchase my mysteries and memoir at

50% off for a limited time 

during the Smashwords Fall eBook Sale

Thank you.

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Yeehaw: a New Western from Author Sandra Cox, Mateo's Blood Brother #newrelease #contemporarywestern #shapeshifter

Mateo’s Blood Brother by Sandra Cox

 

Hello and welcome to the Focused on Story Blog by J.Q. Rose!

Today we are celebrating the release of Sandra Cox's sequel to Mateo's Law. The new contemporary Western, Mateo’s Blood Brother, is packed full of action, suspense and romance, exactly what Sandra is famous for in her previous Western novels.

While Sandra is my honorary cousin, I am hosting her today because she is a dang good writer. I would never "steer" you wrong, Pardner.  

I have enjoyed all of her Westerns. In fact, after reading her books, I remembered how much I loved westerns. When I was a kid and loved watching Rex Allen and Roy Rogers (not Dale Evans cause she was Roy’s girlfriend. I was so jealous.)

 

Sandra includes all the elements I loved in the old movies in this story including the tough, but lovable hero, a strong-minded, sassy gal, a villain, danger and a satisfying ending. The story is set in the contemporary West, and the star is a shape-shifting sheriff.

Behind the amicable façade is a man who’s tough and determined.
He’s Mateo’s Blood Brother.

Back of the Book:

They were friends, close as brothers. Then they weren’t.

Mateo and Jesse are cautiously working their way back to friendship when Jesse discovers the unthinkable. Delilah, the sultry shifter who’d had affairs with both men, is still alive. The tumble she took over a mountain ridge—a fall that nearly killed Mateo—should have finished her.

Now, there’s no choice but for the two men to work together to take down a she-devil straight from hell.  As the stakes escalate and the hunt becomes more intense, another wolf appears on the scene. Always where Jesse’s at. Always when he’s in trouble.  Jesse is divided between ending Delilah, a new love interest, discovering the identity of a certain brown wolf, and staying alive.

My Review of Mateo's Blood Brother

I look forward to the release of Sandra Cox's Western stories. She is a real storyteller. The sequel to Mateo's Law included everything needed to complete this page-turning Western, Mateo's Blood Brother. Ms. Cox nails the location with her word pictures of scenes in the story e.g. "The night black with menace, filled with the oily tang of hate and hunger." Oily tang--what a combination of the senses.  Mateo Grey, the sheriff, was depicted as a tough guy and a shape-shifting wolf. I must admit I didn't know if I'd like such a story--too unbelievable--but somehow, the author writes the characters so well, I easily went along with the idea. If you like romance, paranormal, danger, thrillers, humor and darkness, this book is for you. I highly recommend this quick read.

 

Mateo's Blood Brother by Sandra Cox
Sequel to Mateo's Law

Excerpt:

Just thinking about discovering his erstwhile lover still alive after a fall Jesse was certain killed her and seeing her in that awful half-transformation made his stomach curl. Beads of clammy sweat popped on his forehead. His stomach lurched and for a moment he thought he might hurl.

“And you’re just now telling me?” Mateo’s fists clenched.

“It’s not exactly something one blurts out to strangers.” It had taken him this long to come to grips with the fact that he hadn’t been hallucinating. He’d tried his best to convince himself he’d been imagining it. But breaking into a cold sweat every time he heard a wolf howl pretty much convinced him what he’d seen was real, no matter how impossible.

“We aren’t strangers. We’re blood brothers.” The words erupted from Mateo’s throat like a missile.

“Something you conveniently forgot for eighteen years.”

“Jesse, I—” For once the big, confident sheriff was at a loss for words. Regret limned his features and deepened those unusual amber eyes, so reminiscent of a wolf.

Jesse made a dismissive motion with his hand. He didn’t mind a little blood-letting from his erstwhile friend. The spirits knew he’d suffered enough over the years for the loss of that friendship. Still no need to belabor the point.

“She’s got to be stopped.” A tic pulsed in Mateo’s tight jaw.

“Stopped being a euphemism for killed.”

“Whatever you choose to call it, it comes down to the same thing in the end.”

“She was mine last.” He’d recently learned that Layla and Mateo had been lovers in the past. Another hard pill to swallow. “I’ll end her.”

“Not if I get to her first.”

For a moment, his human hackles rose. She’d been on his mountain, in his cabin and in his bed, all the while wreaking carnage on innocents. She was his responsibility. His job. His right. He leaned forward. His eyes narrowed and drilled into Mateo.

Mateo snarled.

The nerves quivering between Jesse’s tight muscles loosened and a grin flitted across his features. There was that growl again. How did the good people of Grizzly and the surrounding county not realize what their stalwart, unflappable sheriff was? Ah well, people saw what they wanted to and ignored everything else, especially whites.

Jesse leaned forward. “The question is, if the fall didn’t kill her, what will?”

Click here to order Mateo's Blood Brother: Sequel to Mateo's Law in eBook or Paperback formats.

Click here to order Mateo's Law.

 

Character Facts

Blair—Mateo’s fiancée :

 

Jesse and Blair both like to catch the Full Moon Band, that plays hard rock with a native twist, on Wednesday nights at the Blue Coyote.

 Blair loves to sing but unfortunately can’t carry a tune. She sings anyway.

 Blair loves her rusty truck Beulah, which most of her acquaintances consider a bucket of bolts.

Discover More About Sandra's Westerns on the Focused on StoryBlog:

Click the title of the book below to read her guest post.

Mateo's Law

Keeper Tyree

Gwen Slade Bounty Hunter

About Sandra:

Author Sandra Cox

Sandra writes All Things Western, is a vegetarian, animal lover and avid gardener. She lives with her husband, their dog and cats in sunny North Carolina.

She spent a number of years in the Midwest chasing down good Southern BBQ. By the time she moved to North Carolina where Southern BBQ is practically a staple, she’d become a vegetarian.

Pineapple is a must-have on pizza, along with black olives and onions.

She loves pumpkin waffles. Pumpkin cream cheese, not so much.

 

You can find her at:

http://www.sandracoxwriter.com

http://www.cowboytrivia.com

https://sandracox.blogspot.com

http://www.twitter.com/Sandra_Cox.

 

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