Quickie September Note

First...Happy September!

And ONCE UPON A PAINTED HORSE is now available for preorder on Amazon!

Please note, too, that this book is on sale for 99 cents until after its release, when the price will change to $2.99. So reserve your copy today!

Excerpt from ONCE UPON A PAINTED HORSE

That's me, to the right, with a friend! Is that not cool? While on vacation with my husband, Bill, I couldn't resist getting a shot with a REAL painted horse!

And with the release of ONCE UPON A PAINTED HORSE only weeks away, I thought I'd give readers a little taste of what's on the way.

So here goes, an excerpt from my new, soon-to-be-published Christian romance novel (which as I said before, has paranormal elements).

Enjoy!

“Welcome to Meridian Amusement Park,” Tom said softly. “Opened in 1908. For many years it was a dream come true. That is, for the first owner.”

“Was that your great-great-great grandfather?” she joked.

He led the way in, shaking his head. “No, it was another man. He sold it to my great-grandfather in 1958. That was the real heyday of this park, 1958 to about 1968. He sold it to my grandfather because he was afraid. He was the first one to say it was haunted.”

“By the farmer who killed his family and then killed himself?”

Turning to her, Tom didn’t seem either annoyed or surprised.

“That, and the little girl who fell out of the roller coaster,” he said. “She wasn’t restrained properly. She was also too young and probably shouldn’t have been on the ride anyway. That was in 1924.”

“How old was she?”

“Five, almost six. Her name was Bridget.”

“Ohhh…”

They were walking past a couple of old-fashioned ticket booths. Seeing the park from behind the gates was different from being inside it. Tom flashed her a kind smile.

“I don’t want you to think it’s always been tragic here,” he explained. “Yeah, there was also a man who was said to be disturbed who pushed another man off the Ferris wheel—and he fell about fifty feet to his death. But all that’s happened here hasn’t always been bad.”

“So there were happy times here, too?”

“A lot of happy times. Like—well, this way…”

Deeper into the park with him. With Tom, a guy she barely knew. Her parents knew him from church. Interestingly, Heather didn’t feel threatened by that at all. She felt safe with him.

And where were the ghosts? The spirits hidden in every shadow in that place?

The park wasn’t as scary as it was sad. Sad, lonely—and yes, a tragic place.

She thought back to all the scary movies she had seen. Now that Heather thought about it, she had seen more than she could name, including “classics”—or at least, a friend of hers at Barton Lamplight had called them classics. Movies like Night of the Living Dead, The Omen, The Exorcist. Lots of those slasher-style films, too, like Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13^th.

The amusement park wasn’t like that. Just an old place, frozen in time. They walked past an old, rusted Himalaya ride. A shop that might have sold baseball caps, T-shirts and plastic cups, other souvenirs, with the park’s logo. An area with games, like the one with the sign that read WIN A TEDDY BEAR, 25¢.

There had been fun there. Once, a long time ago. Heather found herself wishing it was still like that. Wishing the park was still alive.

“From what my grandfather told me,” Tom recounted, tossing out an arm showily at the entrance to the Tunnel of Love, “there were more than a few wedding proposals in this place.”

Heather smiled. “Wish it was still working.”

“Me, too. The water either was drained or they let it all evaporate over the years. Even if it wasn’t,” he told her, “there’s no electricity running through the place.”

“Nowhere in the park?”

“Nowhere.”

“Not even the lights?”

“Nope. I use a flashlight. I try not to come here at night, though.” Tom paused. “Since I was jumped.”

“You were jumped?”

“Yes. That happened in broad daylight, actually. They beat me and they left me there. Made off with my wallet and about thirty dollars. I guess they thought there was more money or something to find here.”

Heather sighed. No wonder he was that way around her the day he’d found her snooping around at the gate.

“Did you ever think about opening it again?” she asked.

“My dad did. He went broke. Not because of the park. He closed it a long time ago, back in ’74. Want to see something amazing?”

“I think the whole place is amazing.” She was being truthful with him. “Sad and old—but amazing.”

Grinning appreciatively, Tom took her gently by the arm and led the way.

“Well, then, you’ll really love this, Heather,” he promised.

He’s like the park.

Where had that thought come from? But it was true. Tom Clayton, though not old, was sad and rather haunted. Heather clasped her hand over the one he had on her forearm.

July Updates

Quickie check-in with updates, though the main one is that I'm about halfway done with editing and polishing my upcoming release, DISTANT FIRE, which is Book 2 of THE JOYFUL NOISE SERIES. Very possibly won't be releasing Book 3, FOR THE LOVE OF SUMMER, until September. That will conclude this Christian romance novel series, and then I'll be working on another Christian mainstream, very different than my previous books, and probably a period piece.

Don't forget: In case you haven't read Book 1 of the series yet, UNCONDITIONAL is a perma-free book. Get yours now!

That's the writing/books update.

On the personal front, I've become quite the baker! Thanks to Pinterest, I *finally* found a sourdough starter that I liked and didn't mess up, and here it is. Plus, I lucked out and found a wonderful sourdough bread recipe, and you'll find that here. That was a hit with my family, especially my granddaughter, Aubrey, who wanted some to take home with her.

An interesting note: I had no eggs available when I made the bread recipe and substituted 1/2 cup of unsweetened applesauce. My husband, Bill, didn't know that and was pleasantly surprised, saying it had just a hint of sweetness. Just FYI, in case you want to skip the egg when making this one! It was easy and the dough was less sticky than some I've seen, easy to work with, though you do need about 3 to 4 hours for rising/baking.

While we're on the subject, want something light, healthy, summery and a great side dish for lunch or dinner? Here's a fabulous tomato & cucumber salad! And again, I made a change to it by replacing the feta with about 1/4 cup (but you can certainly use more or less) of grated Asiago cheese.

One more note: Thanks to K9Instinct, I also did some baking for Piper and Lassie. With no coconut flour on hand, I made it with all-purpose flour, the type I always have on hand. The girls LOVED it. Note: Thanks to a friend of mine, Mary, for the tip to freeze half the recipe, since these are fresh and made without preservatives, so you can take them down when you need them for your furbabies.

So there are my July 2014 updates for books-on-the-way...and yummy things to whip up in your kitchen.

Coming Soon--NEW CHRISTIAN ROMANCE SERIES

Yes, I know ONE SWEET DAY hasn't been out very long, but I'm also very excited to share the news about my new upcoming Christian romance series, JOYFUL NOISE. This 3-book series takes place in a fictional town named Hathaway, which is only a hop, skip & a jump from the real-life town of Wildwood, New Jersey. In each book, one or the other--the hero or heroine--will be a musician. Hence, the name of the series, Joyful Noise, taken from Psalm 100:1!

In Book 1, UNCONDITIONAL, readers will be meeting all of the characters who will "star" in their own book...including lots of minor but important-in-their-own-right characters, too! UNCONDITIONAL will kick off the series in March 2014 and be PERMANENTLY free. I hope to release DISTANT FIRE in May or June, with FOR THE LOVE OF SUMMER being published hopefully no later than August.

So for now, here is the cover release for each of these books! Oh--and don't forget there are only a few days left to sign up to win one of THREE paperback editions of ONE SWEET DAY on Goodreads. And in the meantime, before the release of JOYFUL NOISE, if you haven't read THE LARKSPUR VALLEY SERIES, be sure to pick up an ebook version from Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Smashwords, Apple, Kobo or any of its distributors! Enjoy this snowy N'oreaster day and be careful about there!