Karen Cogan holiday treat new romance

Made For Each Other, Grandma Mandy Book 1

Karen Cogan

Contemporary Inspirational Romance series

Karen Cogan Books, release: December 1

E-book $2.99

Buy on Amazon 

About the Book:

When Lissa arrives in Farmington, Grandma is recovering from a mild illness. Her artist friend, Jason, picks Lissa up from the airport. Though their attraction to one another is immediate, Lissa refuses to be tempted into romance with a man in Jason’s occupation. She has been influenced by her mother to believe anyone in a creative job has the potential for ruin and starvation. These childhood teachings drove Lissa to actions for which she now carries a guilty secret. Although Jason is handsome and considerate, Lissa is wary and feels it is better to have a husband with a secure job than one who is at the mercy of public trends.

Jason is determined not to fall for another committed career woman, and risk the pain of breaking up, as he did with his former fiancé. Taking second place to his wife’s work is not what he wants in a marriage. In addition, he takes his faith seriously and worries about Lissa’s ambivalent relationship with God.

Will past experiences stand in the way of their relationship or will they grow together to find true love?

A brief interview with the Author:

Karen, what do you love about this story?

In MADE FOR EACH OTHER, I love how the romance develops over the course of the story to resolve the trust issues of Jason and Lissa.

Share one or two things you learned about the subject.

You can’t force romance to develop. It has to come naturally from the needs and character traits of the characters.

Introduce us to your most influential sidekick.

My most influential sidekick is my little dog who lies on the floor sleeping near my feet. He always trusts I’ll come up with and answer for anything. Such unconditional trusts spills over to everything, including an answer when I get stuck in a plot.

What do I want readers to tell others when they’ve finished?

I want them to tell others that God has a plan for every life and He will lead us into the right decisions if we wait and trust.

What are you reading right now?

I am reading Dean Koontz’s The Crooked Staircase because I love his way with words and his exciting plot twists.

What’s next?

I will be working on releasing the second book in the Grandma Mandy Series. MADE FOR EACH OTHER is the first book. LANDSCAPE OF LOVE is the second and will be a free download.

About the Author: 

Karen was born and reared in Houston, Texas. While still loyal to her home state, she enjoys the beautiful scenery of New Mexico, where she now lives with her family and a myriad of pets. http://karencogan.com/

Cindy Lynch sequel Even Willows Weep

Even Willows Weep the second installment in the Bye For Now trilogy

Fiction/young adult/chick-lit

About the Book:

Even Willows Weep is book number two in the Bye For Now trilogy. This second book continues to follow Callista Lamply, on her journey in becoming a young professional art therapist, working with children dealing with cancer. Enter Pheonix, an imp of a child, dealing with her terminal cancer the best she can. Strangely, Callie has had visions of Pheonix in her dreams and shock registers now, having Pheonix, in the flesh, here at her art table. Callie becomes emotionally attached to this young girl as she prepares herself for the inevitable. This task of pushing facts aside so that she can continue to honor her professional duties becomes monumental with each tick of the clock.

Maddie, Callie’s best friend and roommate, is a quirky little thing leaving nothing to the imagination. She has no filter which, oddly enough, Callie finds endearing. Maddie made the leap, leaving Connecticut to start fresh in Missouri and try as they might to run from their past, history seems to be repeating itself. Will this cause Maddie to resort to her coping mechanisms that nearly cost her her life years ago?

Meanwhile Callie's brother Jimmy believes that he is happily living with his wife in their quaint cabin on Lake Carmi. However, the veil of deception is lifted leaving Jimmy with pain and uncertainty. He forges ahead in his role of a lifetime, becoming a father, unaware that the Sandy Hook tragedy looms ahead.

When dreams of lost love, causes images, voices and emotions to bubble up from the recesses of her mind, Callie wonders if she has finally found what she truly wants in life.

Each will decide their fate by allowing that little voice within to be heard.

Just listen and believe.

Buy on Amazon

A brief interview with Cindy

Tell us what you love about this sequel.

I really enjoyed writing this sequel. We continue to follow the main character, Callie, a few years after she leaves college, picking up where the first book ended. There are many twists that occur in this book that I didn’t see coming. There was one particular disturbing scene that I questioned, “that was dark. Where did that come from?” I really enjoyed watching these characters live their lives, growing and changing. I just never knew what was going to happen next.

Are you doing anything differently in your publishing process from your first book?

I’m basically following the same protocol. I’m still self-publishing through createspace and following the steps in Stacy Dymalski’s book Nine Steps to Self-Publishing Your Book: The Memoir Midwife. It seems to work well for me. I have to say, having one book under my belt made the second that much easier. The process wasn’t as daunting.

Introduce us to a character in Even Willows Weep.

Duncan Campbell is a suave, shaggy haired, bedroom-eyed musician that sweeps Callie off her feet momentarily. He has a roaming eye, but seems to be just what Callie needs at the moment. He was a lot of fun to write. There are several new characters that appear in this book. I had to create new friendships and relationships. I’m pleased with how it all turned out in the end.

What do you hope readers will tell others?

I want my readers to tell others that the book feels edgier than the last. My hope is that the readers can sense some growth happening within each character. Sometimes this growth isn’t positive, but that makes those characters more interesting. I especially want the reader to feel some kind of emotion through out the story.

What are you reading these days?

I just finished Folly Beach by Dorothea Benton Frank. It was a light, fun read. I’m in the middle of Hollow City, the sequel to Miss Peregrine’s peculiar children. I’m really enjoying the ride in this one. I think Ransom Riggs did something clever that I had never seen done before.  He took old black and white photos he found and create a story around them.

What’s next?

My next book will be the final installment in the Bye For Now trilogy. As of yet it is unnamed and unwritten. I know where I want to take the characters, but I’ll just have to wait and see where they want to take me. I’m excited to see what journey they have in store for me.

After the final installment is finished and published, I’ll begin to work diligently on my first attempt at non-fiction. I’m very excited about that challenge.

Thank you for the opportunity to get my stories out there!

~My pleasure, Cindy, best wishes!

Book Review, A Life Worth Dreaming About, by Nick Dettmann

 

A Life Worth Dreaming About by Nicholas Dettmann

Author House

Date: February, 2012

$3.99 eBook; $16.99 print

Gen Fiction

 

 

Description: Carl Robertson, a 32-year-old man, did everything he could to move out of his small Midwestern town, losing many friends along the way. He dreamt of living the elegant lifestyle of New York City. He used his anger and hatred to move out of his hometown, discredit it and never wanted to think about it again.

 

For a while, it worked. Then, he finds his life on the ropes and doesn't know why or how to change it. That is until he meets a man who will change his life forever and in a way he never could've seen coming. Suddenly, he finds himself trying to catch up to a new reality, just in time to save his life and find his true love.

Learn more at www.nickdettmann.com

 

Dettmann is a talented journalist foremost, and his reporting skills occasionally make his debut novel read like an article. Readers will find the bones of a good story, that of Carl Robertson, who faces a medical crisis in order to find himself, underneath the layers of a multitude of characters who surround him at his fancy ad exec job. Wading through the opening story of the man who couldn’t be bothered to stop long enough to see the people around him, readers will come across an intriguing tale of second chances. Don’t we all long to “re-do” those things that haunt us?

 

Each person has a dream of the perfect life. Carl got to choose his. Those who enjoy stories like Heaven Can Wait will have a good time watching Carl go back and change the disaster that was his life.