Friday Reads~Beautiful Wreck

 

Well friends, we made it. It is Friday! That means it’s time to get our #FridayReads on and we have a fantastic author interview to share.  A big welcome  and congratulations to CeeCee James! She released the third book of her Wrecked and Yours Second Chances trilogy this week. Let’s get the interview started.

I enjoy reading novels that are part of a series. Tell our readers what your series is about.

The series is about love, secrets and navigating life. It’s romantic, uncertain and messy, like life often is. It describes their season to make a choice, “look at life honestly and deal with it, or continue to run away.” CeeCee absolutely loved writing it, and hopes it resonates with you because everyone has an important story of what they’ve overcome.

The first two novels of your series have dramatic titles, Wrecked and Yours and Out of the Wreckage. Book three has a sweeter title, Beautiful Wreck. To me that indicates the characters carry over and grow in each book.

Is Beautiful Wreck intended to be a stand alone novel or can it be read as a stand alone?

A Beautiful Wreck is written to be a stand alone, this sweet romance is all about hope restored.

I just happen to have the blurb: 😀

Her love may heal him, but his secret may destroy her.

One terrifying, emotional mission to return a family heirloom sends Cassie on an unexpected search for the person she never knew she needed.

Luke is tough, strong, and was once the best cop in town. Until the mob took away the one person he ever wanted. Now he’s trapped in fear over the man he’s become.

Cassie wants to bring him redemption, but fears she will never open her heart again.Each is the only one who can understand the other. If they’d just let their walls down.

Now to the part my mother enjoys, questions about the author. (She claims she is curious rather than nosy).

What influenced your decision to embark upon the insane journey of becoming an author?

My journey as an author first started as a child who loved to read. Growing up in a household that was often painful, in and out of foster care, I made my escape in several favorite books, who continue to be favorites to this day.

I am sure our readers would like to know which books and authors are your favorites. I know I would!

My first favorite that is near and dear to my heart is the James Herriot All Creatures Great and Small series. Those four books made me laugh, cry, and feel like there was a place of goodness and hope still in this word that set me on my own personal journey to find that place. He was an amazing author.

My second favorite books are the C.S. Lewis series, The Chronicles of Narnia. Yes! Still a favorite. It was here I saw other kids escape to new lands, and I lived vicariously through them. They reminded me to be brave, and continue to look for the beauty and whimsy in the world. I adored reading them out loud to my own children, over cups of hot cocoa.

As an adult, my favorites have gone far and wide. But nothing has yet measured up to J.R.R. Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings trilogy. His world building skills continue to hold me in awe.

Those are some of my favorites too. I devoured The Chronicles of Narnia.

No interview is complete without the official author bio.

CeeCee James

 CeeCee James is a wife, mom, owner of two mini-dashchunds, writer, and watercolor artist. Most of all, she is a survivor. The story about overcoming strife is one that resonates with her. She lived it herself. An advocate for adult survivors of child abuse, her Ghost No More series is her true story of surviving and healing from childhood trauma.

CeeCee’s blog is Joyfully Living After Child Abuse

CeeCee James Author Page

If you would like to contact CeeCee on Facebook

https://www.facebook.com/CeeCeeJamesAuthor

To view the complete series, click on the cover below

I think our time is up CeeCee. It’s time to finish up my workday and do the TGIF dance.

TGIF Dancing cat gif

 

It has been a pleasure to host you.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Funny How it Turned Out~A Writer is Born Finale

IMG_0465Funny how things turn out. For a while after Bill retired I felt I should do everything he wanted me to do and go everywhere he wanted me to go. But, although we got along well, I harbored secret dissatisfaction with our life together. Eventually we worked it out so that we were both free to do what we really wanted to do, even you might say, what we were born to do. Him to travel, me to stay at home. Now he plans trips and goes on them. Now I stay at home and write, and live a very pleasant life. He doesn’t go for very long and he only makes two trips a year, but we’re both happy with the new arrangement, and guess what. As it turns out we are both writers. Who would ever have thought it?

 

 

 

I am happy to say that Bill is a weekly blogger on my blog  Old Things R New. His posts and especially his travel ones are very popular  both in the United States and internationally-Onisha

An Interview with the Women of Pendleton Petticoats

Character interview

Our interview today is with three characters from Shanna Hatfield’s new historical series. Set in the western town of Pendleton, Oregon, the Pendleton Petticoats series highlights brave, determined women. During the early 1900s, Pendleton was a modern, progressive town, despite its Wild West reputation. In addition to 18 bordellos and 32 saloons, Pendleton offered residents such cultured experiences as an opera house, a French restaurant, and a tearoom. It was the second city in Oregon to have paved streets and boasted a telephone office as well as wonders like indoor plumbing to those who could afford the services.  The women in Pendleton Petticoats are from diverse backgrounds but find unity in following their hearts and chasing their dreams.

Aundy, Caterina and Ilsa join us today to talk about life in Pendleton.

 

Welcome to you three lovely ladies. Tell us a little about how you each came to be in Pendleton.

Aundy: I came to Pendleton as a mail-order bride for a kind-hearted farmer named Erik Erikson. We wed as soon as I stepped off the train, but had a wagon wreck on the way home. Erik died three days later, leaving me, a city girl, his farm and everything he owned.

Caterina: Growing up in New York, I never expected to live so far out west. When a mafia boss decided I would marry him, my family helped me escape and I got off the train here. Aundy was the second person I met and we’ve been friends ever since.

Ilsa: (Giggles) You forgot to mention the first person you met was your very good-looking deputy sheriff husband, Kade. You literally ran into him when you turned a corner and smacked into his chest when you first arrived in town.

Caterina: (Glaring at Ilsa) So I did. Thank you for sharing that with everyone. Let’s talk about why you came to town.

Ilsa: Because Aundy, she’s my sister, and Garrett, that’s Aundy’s husband, rescued me from our horrid aunt in Chicago who was holding me prisoner and brought me here.

 

What does a typical day entail for each of you?

Aundy: Garrett and I live on the place I inherited from Erik. Our day starts early in the morning with chores. I still don’t like gathering the eggs because our rooster is a nasty little fellow, but I enjoy everything else on the farm. My favorite thing is riding my horse Bell with Garrett, or sitting on the hill above the pasture watching our sheep. Thanks to our Chinese cook, I don’t have to spend a lot of time in the house.

Caterina: Kade and I live just outside of town with his behemoth dog, Ike. We ride into town together in the morning. He goes to work at the sheriff’s office and I go to my restaurant where I create Italian food that reminds me of my family.

Aundy: She’s an amazing cook. You really should drop by sometime for dinner. Her ravioli is divine.

Ilsa: And you have to try one of her pastries. In fact, if I don’t stop eating there so often, I’m going to have to let the seams out of my dresses.

Caterina: You could always learn how to cook…

Ilsa: (Shakes her head) I’d rather sew.

Aundy: (Smiles sweetly and bats her eyelashes at Ilsa) We all know she eats at the restaurant so she can ogle Caterina’s handsome brother.

Ilsa: I don’t ogle Tony! (Huffs indignantly) Returning to the question, I have a dress shop just down the street from Caterina’s restaurant. I design and create clothing, primarily for women. I used to sew for the most elite in Chicago’s social circles, but I’m excited to bring high fashion to the women of Pendleton and Umatilla County.

 

What’s one thing people might not know about your town?

Caterina: It’s growing faster than we can imagine. In the two years I’ve been here, there has been a boom in new businesses and enterprises, like Ilsa’s boutique and my restaurant.

Aundy: There’s also a boom in less savory businesses like those in The Underground.

 

What’s the Underground?

(Caterina and Ilsa both look at Aundy)

Aundy: There are tunnels running beneath a section of town that connects several businesses and provides a place for unsavory characters to quench their thirsts, play cards, and engage the services of… um… (Aundy leans close and whispers) women of ill repute.

Ilsa: And you should never, ever stand on top of the grates set in the boardwalk because some of the men in the tunnels will try to peek up a lady’s skirt.

 

That’s certainly scandalous. Have any of you ever been in the Underground?

Caterina: Gracious, no!

Ilsa: I should say not! It’s no fit place for a lady.

Aundy: Oh, goodness, look at the time. We really should be going. Thank you so much for inviting us here today. We’re so grateful for this wonderful opportunity to connect with your readers.

 

Thank you for joining us. Any parting words for our readers?

 

Ilsa: If you enjoy historical fiction, clean romances, or a good western, I hope you’ll consider reading our stories in Aundy, Caterina and Ilsa.

 

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Hopeless Romantic

Shanna Hatfield is a hopeless romantic with a bit of sarcasm thrown in for good measure. In addition to blogging, eating too much chocolate, and being smitten with her husband, lovingly known as Captain Cavedweller, she is a best-selling author of clean romantic fiction written with a healthy dose of humor. She is a member of Western Writers of America, Women Writing the West, and Romance Writers of America. Her historical westerns have been described as “reminiscent of the era captured by Bonanza and The Virginian” while her contemporary works have been called “laugh-out-loud funny, and a little heart-pumping sexy without being explicit in any way.”

 

Find Shanna’s books at:

Amazon | Amazon UK | Barnes & Noble | Smashwords

 

Follow Shanna online:

ShannaHatfield | Facebook | Pinterest | Goodreads | You Tube | Twitter

 

Email Shanna at shanna@shannahatfield.com