Pathfinding Women and the art of sequels with Tam May

Tam May started writing when she was fourteen, and writing became her voice. She loves history and wants readers to love it too, so she writes historical fiction that lives and breathes a world of the past. She fell in love with San Francisco and its rich history when she learned about its resilience and rebirth after the 1906 earthquake and fire during a walking tour. She grew up in the United States and earned a B.A. and M.A in English. She worked as an English college instructor (where she managed to interest a class full of wary freshmen in Henry James’ fiction) and EFL teacher (using literature to teach English to business professionals)before she became a full-time writer.

Her book Lessons From My Mother’s Life debuted at #1 on Amazon in the Historical Fiction Short Stories category. She is currently working on a Gilded Age family drama titled the Waxwood Series. The first book of the series, The Specter, came out in June 2019, and the second book, False Fathers, was released in December of that year. Book 3, Pathfinding Women is out now, and Book 4 will be released in December 2020.

Tam lives in Texas but calls San Francisco and the Bay Area “home”. When she’s not writing, she’s reading classic literature, watching classic films, cross-stitching, or cooking up yummy vegetarian dishes.

For more information on Tam May and her work, check out her website at www.tammayauthor.com. You can also sign up for her newsletter, which features lots of information on fascinating psychological and social history and subscriber-exclusive sneak peeks, giveaways, and polls. plus a free short story.

Guest Post

When I started publishing books in 2017, I had only a vague idea of what meant to write a series. My first book was a stand-alone short story collection (which I revised and re-released earlier this year as Lessons From My Mother’s Life, which you can find out more about here). After that book came out, I knew I wanted to write a Gilded Age family saga which became the Waxwood Series. I originally planned on writing  a trilogy. However, the series morphed into four books after I realized a prequel short story I had written as an early free gift for my newsletter subscribers needed to be Book 1 of the series. It was the story of “how it all began,” that is, how the protagonist of the series, Vivian Alderdice, begins her journey to uncover the lies, half-truths, and secrets tainting the family through the generations.

Most writers have an “I wish I would have known that before I started” moment, and mine was when I realized a series is not just a collection of books that share similar characters or locations. A series has a beginning, middle, and it has to work like a story. It has to have a climax and resolution and a progression of growth and change in one or more of the characters to satisfy the reader. Even if the books do not tell one cohesive story, they must be linked, and that link has to have causality. Author and writing teacher John Gardener explained it as the difference between “The king died, and then the queen died” and “The king died, and then the queen died of grief.”

I made this discovery after I wrote the second book of the series, False Fathers. That book is about Vivian’s younger brother, Jake, and his coming of age. I originally intended Book 3 to follow the pattern of focusing on different characters who had a connection to the Alderdice family, the family of my series. But after Book 2, I realized the central theme of the series was the way the family members find authenticity and truth after the façade created by the lies and secrets is exposed. The family metaphorically sheds its old skin for a new one.

Given that, I knew Book 3 had to continue that story arc.Book 1 was about Penelope Alderdice, Vivian’s grandmother, “where it all began.” Book 2 was about Jake and his journey. Vivian’s journey kicked off in Book 1, and then stalled in Book 2. So it was a natural progression to bring her back and continue her journey in Book 3, Pathfinding Women.

Pathfinding Women is now available, and you can find out more about the book and get your copy here.

Pathfinding Women (Waxwood Series: Book 3)

Author – Tam May

Publisher – Dreambook Press

Pages – 376

Release Date – 13 September 2020

ISBN 13 – 978-0998338507

Formats – ebook, paperback

Synopsis

There are paths in life we have no choice but to follow.

At the close of the nineteenth century, Vivian Alderdice is twenty-six, unmarried, and has no prospective suitors. Now the heiress of the Alderdice fortune, she has yet to fulfill her duty to her family and to society: to marry well and produce heirs.

Her brother’s tragic plight the year before left her and her mother on shaky ground with the San Francisco bluebloods of Nob Hill, and the only way they can re-establish their social position is to win the heart of Monte Leblanc, a wealthy Canadian in search ofa wife and looking to become a member of the exclusive Washington Street society.

But a young man on the train tells Vivian things about her grandmother that shake her to the core. Even as she is pursued by the debonair Monte Leblanc, Vivian can’t avoid ghosts from the past who send her on a journey she is reluctant to take.

Is there always light at the end of a dark and hellish path?

Author Links:

Website: https://tammayauthor.com/

Blog: https://tammayauthor.com/category/thedreambookblog

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tammayauthor/

Twitter: https://twitter.com/tammayauthor

Pinterest: https://www.pinterest.com/tammayauthor/

Instragram: https://www.instagram.com/tammayauthor/

Goodreads Author Page: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/16111197.Tam_May

Amazon Author Page: https://www.amazon.com/Tam-May/e/B01N7BQZ9Y/

BookBub Author Page: https://www.bookbub.com/authors/tam-may

Heart of a Warrior review Angela Couch

 

Heart of a Warrior

Angela K Couch

Prism Books

Sept 1, 2020

American romantic history

$5.99 EBook

https://www.amazon.com/Heart-Warrior-Angela-K-Couch-ebook/dp/B0875NPKLZ

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/heart-of-a-warrior-angela-k-couch/1136867479?ean=9781522398608

$16.99 Print

282 pp

About the Book

All Christina Astle wants is to reach Oregon before her baby is born, but the wagon train is attacked, and her husband killed, stranding her in a mountain labyrinth. Raised in the East, within civilization’s embrace, survival is not a skill she’s learned. Neither is evading the lone warrior dogging her trail.

Disgusted by the greed and cruelty of men like his white father, Towan has turned to the simpler existence of his mother’s tribal people. He is not prepared for the fiery woman who threatens to upturn his entire life … and his heart.

 

My Review

Page-turning historical fiction, real romance in American history. Victims of greed on the Oregon Trail, Christina’s husband and his friend pay with their lives, leaving pregnant Christian at the mercy of murderers. It’s a matter of what or who will get her and her newborn first – the coming winter in the mountains, savage Shoshone, or uncouth trappers. But which are the bad guys and which are saviors?

Christina is one mixed-up woman, young and naïve, she must find the will to survive the wilderness with people who willingly take her in, despite their unfamiliarity with each other. The man who rescues her is just as mixed up, ethnically and culturally. Raised in the white world, Towan returned with his Shoshone mother as an adult, but never feels at home in either world, until he gives in to his conscious and helps a white woman. 

Both are lost souls, bound by mistakes and misunderstanding in their past and present and Christina’s adorable infant. Couch’s endearing historical romance doesn’t sidestep issues of racial injustice or violence, goes light on historical Shoshone village life, while creating an enjoyable, thought-provoking read.

 

About the Author

To keep from freezing in the Great White North, Angela K Couch cuddles under quilts with her laptop. Winning short story contests, being a semi-finalist in ACFW’s Genesis Contest, and a finalist in the International Digital Awards also helped warm her up. As a passionate believer in Christ, her faith permeates the stories she tells. Her martial arts training, experience with horses, and appreciation for good romance sneak in there, as well. When not writing, she stays fit (and warm) by chasing after four munchkins.

Through Healed Lenses blog tour

 

Write Now Literary is pleased to be organizing a two-week book tour for Through Healed Lenses by Adrienne’Quinn. The book tour will run August 24-Sept 4, 2020.

            

Genre: Non-Fiction    

 

ISBN-13: 979-8648414099

ASIN: B08DC1P8MY

      

                               Meet Adrienne

 

Adrienne Kelly, pen name, Adrienne'Quinn, is a practicing Acute Care Nurse Practitioner in Atlanta, GA. Adrienne's childhood included being raised by a single mother and growing up in a small town with a large, close-knit maternal family who heavily influences her upbringing and writings. She is a mom two a boy, Joziah and girl, Azariah. She is the CEO and founder of Gifting Love LLC, an organization that focuses on holistic mentoring through the use of spiritual and emotional education, as well as therapy services for adolescent girls. Adrienne started her therapy journey years ago and has become an avid supporter of counseling services.

 

                                                                                    About The Book

 

How often do you find yourself wondering why the same outcomes in relationships, be it familiar or personal, continue to happen to you? When is the last time you caught yourself feeling as if there was something missing? Or something more to life than your current predicaments? When was the last time you had a negative thought about yourself, that you could not comfortably say aloud because society would judge it by their skewed standards? Or how about a time when you felt defeated but had to keep moving forward for the sake of image or responsibility? In Adrienne ‘Quinn’s new book, every page answers, provides depth, and context to the above questions.

                                                

                                                Excerpt

Life is a slideshow full of relationships. The journey we experience with our parent, children, brother, sister, friend, teachers, strangers, significant other, and spouse are all relationships in which we learn to exist and navigate life. The people gifted to us by blood were, in some realm, ordained by God to guide and influence our life experiences. These life experiences do not always present as the most favorable or positive; however, they are a part of our story.

 

Connect Socially                       Purchase Link

 

 

 Facebook       IG       Website            Amazon

 

 

Tour organized by Write Now Literary

Lisa's Review

Adrienne Kelly’s new memoir journey to healing is a brutally honest look at her introduction to adulthood. She’s earned success in professional life all while figuring out how to navigate the tricky waters of relationships both romantic and platonic. She’s made mistakes and presents herself at her most vulnerable to let others know that bumps can truly be blessings in disguise.

Part Self-help and all inspiring, Kelly’s passionate heart and desire to show young people that life should be more than a constant struggle and overcoming issues, but one of standing firm in self-confidence, knowing who you are, your boundaries, and your goal line.

Written in intimate journal format with hard-hitting questions and moments of self-discovery, Through Healed Lenses is highly recommended for readers seventh grade and up.

 

Thrilling conclusion to Prayer Slayer murders with Clare Revell

Say a Prayer Whodunit Crime Thrillers by Clare Revell

Serial, 4 books

c. 2020

Pelican Ventures LLC

Ebooks, $5.99

Print, $15.99

 About the Author

Clare is a British author. She lives in a small town just outside Reading, England with her husband, whom she married in 1992, their three children, and unfriendly mini-panther, aka Tilly the black cat. They have recently been joined by Hedwig and Sirius the guinea pigs. Clare is half English and half Welsh, which makes watching rugby interesting at times as it doesn’t matter who wins.

Writing from an early childhood and encouraged by her teachers, she graduated from rewriting fairy stories through fan fiction to using her own original characters and enjoys writing an eclectic mix of romance, crime fiction and children's stories. When she's not writing, she can be found reading, crocheting or doing the many piles of laundry the occupants of her house manage to make.

Her books are based in the UK, with a couple of exceptions, thus, although the spelling may be American in some of them, the books contain British language and terminology and the more recent ones are written in UK English.

The first draft of every novel is hand written.

She has been a Christian for more than half her life. She goes to Carey Baptist where she is one of four registrars.
She can be found at:
http://www.revell124.plus.com/clarere...
https://www.facebook.com/ClareRevellA...
https://twitter.com/ClareRevell
http://telscha.blogspot.co.uk/
https://uk.pinterest.com/ClareLRevell/
https://www.instagram.com/clarerevell/
https://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B005NZT2O2
https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005NZT2O2
http://pelicanbookgroup.com/ec/index....

Soul to Take, book #4

Buy on

Amazon 

Barnes and Noble

Pelican book store 

About the Book

Just when things couldn't get much worse, they suddenly do. With DS Zander Ellery in jail, his partner DC Isabel York fights to clear his name. Not an easy task when she is suspended from duty and the evidence against him is compelling.

Finally, pieces begin to fall into place, but to catch the Prayer Slayer once and for all, both officers must walk down a dark path where their very souls are at risk of being taken.

My review

In this final chapter of the Say a Prayer murders in the English village of Headley Cross, Detective Isabel York knows she’s on the victim’s list. The only person who believes her is her partner, Detective Zander Ellery, who’s in jail accused of the murders, and she’s been suspended from the case. But that doesn’t mean she can’t be sneaky about continuing her investigation from…home.

In this serial murder case of the victims being chosen by extremely tight circumstances and eerily similar habits, Isabel attempts to break the mold and hopefully distract the murderer—before he can kill anyone else, let alone her. A secret from her past has caught up to her, preying heavily on her vulnerabilities. News that should be happy smells decidedly rotten. And again, since Zander is jailed with extremely ripe evidence as to his part in the murder plot, Isabel is on her own, up against a gruesome murderer…who can’t possibly be Zander...could it?

Secrets abound as both Isabel and Zander come to grips with revenge, brutal lies, and graphic crimes committed to satisfy a wholly unwholesome appetite. It’s personal when the killer gets to family and close friends. Everyone is under suspicion, even church friends, and the tension may force them all to reconsider whether vengeance truly belongs to the Lord, or whether He needs some help carrying it out.

All the stories are told through Zander and Isabel’s perspectives, deftly done so that intuition and thought processes serve to illuminate and distract as these able detectives work diligently to solve a disturbing serial murder case.

new romance from Robin Fuson

 

Worthless to Priceless

Robin Densmore Fuson

Buy on Amazon 

Ebook $2.99

Print $7.99

198 pp

July 2020

About the Book

At the tender age of thirteen, orphaned Jenny Low decides to take matters in her own hands and runs away from her captive life in a Ute tribe. Rescued from near death by a kindly teamster, Samuel Baunof, Jenny is sent to live with a family in Glenwood Springs, Colorado in 1886. She learns the truth of wickedness and runs again straight into true evil.

Meanwhile, Samuel holds his head up while facing life's cruelty head on. A few years later, he crosses paths with the orphaned girl he once rescued. Now a beautiful young woman, Jenny is a God-send in his time of need. Their trials aren’t over and Samuel finds himself tracking her through the wilderness where, unbeknownst to him, someone else is after her too. Will he get to her in time?

Can these two people with completely different backgrounds and beliefs help each other and those around them? Is Samuel able to rescue Jenny from the horror her life has been drawn into? Is his faith strong enough to help her understand that God loves her and didn’t abandon her? Jenny is challenged to accept love and forgiveness even when she feels the world closing in.

 

My review

Heart-achy love story between a young girl, brutally abused on the old west of Colorado, and a widower searching for someone to care for his young children.

It’s a familiar trope well-retold by a master storyteller. Fuson’s tales are always dramatic and life-changing no matter where or when they’re set.

Jenny has an almost True Grit aspect to her life, though she needs to kindness of others to help her escape the desperate circumstances she is in. After escaping from one horror and jumping into the next, this girl just can’t get a break until her life circles around to meet with the rescuer who thought he’d done a good deed.

Samuel has a good position as a teamster in Colorado; it’s just that he’s on the road for days at a time and when his wife passes away, he has three young tots to care for. Life is funny when it leads him back to the young girl he rescued from the desert. Horrified to learn the couple who took her in failed her dreadfully, and the next troubling circumstance she entered was even worse, Samuel was more than determined to see her safe.

Nicely told from both sides of gritty realism, romance readers will enjoy Fuson’s latest story.

About the Author

Robin recently moved to Tennessee with her husband Jimmy. Together, they celebrate with seventeen grandchildren. An award winner for romance and flash fiction. Robin is multi-published and writes stories on her blog for children. Robin is a member of ACFW, Vice President of ACFW Colorado Western Slope, and member of John316 Marketing Network. She enjoys leading a Bible study group and singing in two community choirs. Robin loves company and challenging her young guests to discover the many giraffes in the obvious and hidden nooks and crannies of their home.

Book 3 of Prayer Slayer with Clare Revell

Say a Prayer Whodunit Crime Thrillers by Clare Revell

Serial, 4 books

c. 2020

Pelican Ventures LLC

Ebooks, $5.99

Print, $15.99

About the Author

Clare is a British author. She lives in a small town just outside Reading, England with her husband, whom she married in 1992, their three children, and unfriendly mini-panther, aka Tilly the black cat. They have recently been joined by Hedwig and Sirius the guinea pigs. Clare is half English and half Welsh, which makes watching rugby interesting at times as it doesn’t matter who wins.

Writing from an early childhood and encouraged by her teachers, she graduated from rewriting fairy stories through fan fiction to using her own original characters and enjoys writing an eclectic mix of romance, crime fiction and children's stories. When she's not writing, she can be found reading, crocheting or doing the many piles of laundry the occupants of her house manage to make.

Her books are based in the UK, with a couple of exceptions, thus, although the spelling may be American in some of them, the books contain British language and terminology and the more recent ones are written in UK English.

The first draft of every novel is hand written.

She has been a Christian for more than half her life. She goes to Carey Baptist where she is one of four registrars.

She can be found at:
http://www.revell124.plus.com/clarere...
https://www.facebook.com/ClareRevellA...
https://twitter.com/ClareRevell
http://telscha.blogspot.co.uk/
https://uk.pinterest.com/ClareLRevell/
https://www.instagram.com/clarerevell/
https://www.amazon.co.uk/-/e/B005NZT2O2
https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B005NZT2O2
http://pelicanbookgroup.com/ec/index....

Before I Wake, book #3

Buy on

Amazon

Barnes and Noble

Pelican book store

About the Book

With trouble on the streets, DS Zander Ellery is under even more pressure to solve the case of the Prayer Slayer. His partner DC Isabel York is convinced she is being targeted, as all the postcards the Slayer sends are addressed only to her.

With Zander and Isabel pulled in different directions, the body count escalates, until the case explodes in a direction no one could foresee—Something that will test everyone to the limits of their experience and faith.

My review

Murder in Headley Cross, a typically quiet community in the English countryside has everyone on guard. The police don’t seem to be able to not only find the killer, they can’t seem to figure out how he seems to be playing the detectives on the case. Isabel and Zander, the assigned detectives, know the lines of the prayer and speculate on the number of murders the killer plans based on other evidence of stolen artwork, but deaths that don’t fit the pattern throw everything off.

Answers to questions about Isabel’s past creep from home life directly into work, and when other pieces of the puzzle begin to point in her direction as a target for murder, she struggles to convince anyone of her suspicions. Worse yet, Zander seems to be out of control, the whole case spins in a direction that surprises the readers. Following the clues first one direction, then another, will have mystery lovers tied up in knots waiting to see how the author deftly pulls it all together. Told through both Zander and Isabel’s eyes, we grow suspicious as each detective begins to piece the evidence and motives together in different angles. The story comes to a conclusion in book four.

 

Pushing Robby by Kimberly M Miller

                                             

Pushing Robby: An encore of music, life, and love

Kimberly Miller

 

June 15, 2020

200 pp

Contemporary inspirational

Ebook $.99

Print $7.99

Buy on Amazon 

 About the Book

Rock and roll’s bad boy is back!
After rehab, losing his band, and nearly ruining the one relationship that ever meant anything to him, Robby Grant is finally on the right track. A new career, band, and most of all a perfect wife named Daisy can only mean one thing- the worst is finally behind him.

Until the honeymoon ends.

It only takes one phone call for the dark shadows of Robby’s past to threaten his newfound peace. Will Daisy’s love be enough to lead him, again, back to where he belongs?

Pushing Robby revisits the fun (and drama) from Picking Daisy- with most of the cast making a return to walk with the singer and his favorite lyricist through their wedding, and everything that comes after. Get ready for some fun with Robby, Daisy, Jazz, Sadie, Warren, and Uncle Nick—along with a few new characters to spice things up.
Time to Rock and Read!

My review

I adored this encore story to the very charming first story featuring Daisy, a shy, wounded wheelchair-bound songwriter who's introduced to the bad boy of rock 'n roll fame and their journey toward healing (Picking Daisy).  This book is the story of their new marriage and how far they still have to go, separately and together.

Although their story is somewhat idyllic as Robby has money to do whatever he wants, he's still a wounded child under all his bravado and newfound faith. Something from his past comes back to entangle his new life with his new bride. It's true: no good deed goes unpunished.

Lovingly written, joy oozes from each page. Even the punches, real enough, don't hurt long in this gorgeous story of music and redemption, and the "two are better than one" principle of learning and living life together, even when it hurts, and especially when we don't get our own way.

Told from both Robby and Daisy's perspectives, this summer read is a nice vacation with a moral. Suitable for teens and up.

About the Author

Kimberly Miller enjoys the seasonal weather in Pennsylvania with her husband, two daughters, and one ornery cat. She teaches writing and film courses, and in her spare time loves reading, watching movies, making jewelry, drinking coffee and eating one of God’s amazing gifts—chocolate and peanut butter.